Is Feminism Still Relevant in Today's World?

After seeing several posts and articles about whether women and men subscribe to either feminism or equality, I thought about my beliefs and what both represent to me.

For me, my idea of feminism does not wholly stem from the desire of equality, although that desire is present, it has to do with the understanding and awareness that there was a time when I wouldn’t have been considered a person, and that there are still places and people that have this view towards women. That women, all over, were and still are in need of being lifted up to the playing field of men in social, economic and political regards. It has nothing to do with discrediting the plights of men, just remembering our own. It has to do with not forgetting that at one point (and still in some cases) women's issues weren't validated, NOT that men's issues don't matter now.

My idea of equality does not wholly stem from feminism; it has to do with every human being, regardless of ANYTHING, having the same basic human rights, freedoms and opportunities. It is something that we are still reaching for across the globe and feminism took us a step closer. I couldn’t have an understanding of the truth and necessity behind equality, without understanding things like feminist movements and race movements. And, I couldn’t understand feminism without the understanding and having the desire for equality. Just because you understand and won’t forget that women have had to battle their way to even be seen as people, doesn’t mean that you hate men or think that we should reverse the power play somehow. Although the two are different to me, they go hand in hand, equality wouldn’t even be in the equation if it weren’t for civil rights movements and the women’s rights movement, and there are still many people alive who remember when even the idea of equality was but a dream. So to me you can’t really pick one over the other, its no one’s fault today for the mistakes and misfortunes of the people who lived in the past, but we are responsible for remembering the struggles of them and not allowing our generations and the next to endure such things.

To say we don’t need to learn and support feminism any more because we’re all considered people now is like saying we don’t need to learn about race issues anymore because everyone is equal. WHICH IS WRONG. There are still people who are racist and still people who are sexist. And both on our continent have had to and continue to have to, in some regards, endure and fight for their rights.

My idea of feminism has to do with me wanting the right to vote, work, and have control of my body – rights that women did not have all that long ago and still don’t in some instances. It is gender specific for those reasons, but it does not mean that I hate men; it means I won’t forget how far we’ve come and I won’t believe that we still don’t have far to go.

For both men and women I think it should represent the same – an unwillingness to forget that at some point in time the creature beside you or the creature you are wasn’t accepted or respected and that let that be the calling to not let it happen again.

The truth is I don’t think I want to live in a world where we’re all completely “equal” – I want to live in a world where we’re all different and its okay. Where we’re appreciated for it, not where we’re judged for it, where one issue doesn't take more concern than another because of gender or race but because of what is good, right and fair, but not in a world where we forget what it took to get us here.

#Editions