NerdyJill

Hello everyone!

Today, I’m back with an article that’s quite special and dear to me.

                                                  FEMINISM.

Brace yourselves, this is going to be the longest article I’ve written.

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you read this?

Probably “anti-men”, “haters”, “hysterical” even? That’s what I’ve seen people writing on the Internet, and it saddens me very much to see that we live in a world in which you can’t defend your rights without being considered a hater and, therefore, not taken seriously.

> Feminism

As I just wrote, feminism is often seen as men hating. I have even heard, coming from women, that it’s just another fashion. I beg your pardon?

Let’s get this straight. Feminists don’t hate men, nor do they want to rule the world. Feminism is about ending man domination, and having a world where men and women would be treated as equals, just as they should be.

There’s also this idea that feminists are never happy with what they have. I mean, we live in a modern society, right? Right... We’ll get back to this later.

Next, I’ve heard that feminists were hairy, and that they took every little joke as sexist. In other words, they’re hysterical. This is ridiculous. I shave, I hate the feeling of having hairs. People actually judge you on whether you shave or not, and it’s considered an argument. Pathetic. Oh, and I absolutely love dark humour. But when you joke about a car accident happening because a woman was driving, or joke that a woman should stay at home and do the chores, that is no longer joking. It’s sexist.

Truth is, you don’t have to be a woman to be a feminist. Some men are too, I know a few. They’re a minority, sure, but still. So the gender-bashing argument of women being crazy for being feminists is no longer valid... Not that it ever was.

> Girly and manly

This, I believe, is one of the biggest problems that cause sexism. 

Because a boy is raised to be and act manly, and a girl to be and act girly. I never got to choose how I dressed as a child, so I dressed in pink, but I’ve always liked dressing in black. I guess I would have been called a tomboy and people would have mocked me even more.  It’s even worse for boys: let’s say a boy likes flowers. I think you know which terrible word I’m thinking about, that this boy would probably be called. I know someone who likes to wear flowery shirts. And his voice isn’t the most low-pitched I’ve heard. You know what everyone tells me? ‘That one, he’s gay, for sure’. Guess what? He’s not. And what if he was?

Can we also talk about toys? Last christmas, my sister got a vacuum cleaner. A vacuum cleaner. She was three and a half! What is this about?! 

When I was younger, I used to play with Barbies (I’m not going to talk about these ones because I might just hate on them for three hours) and Action Men, aka Ken dolls but manlier ones. Made for boys. I would also play Pokemon and Transformers in the playground and also I’d play Diddl and exchange cards. And I’m not half-boy half-girl. I never played with vacuum cleaners and I still vacuum. But so would my father if he lived with us. 

> Salary/Position

Because sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...

And figures are reliable.

This needs to change! How does your downstairs apparel define the quality of your job? Why would a woman be less of hard-worker than a man? Last time I checked, you work with your brain.

> Other countries

I’m only going to talk about a country I know, because I have studied its situation and still do: India. The situation of women there is absolutely abhorrent. Long story short, even though it is illegal, the dowry system is still in use, because it’s a well-embedded tradition. When a woman marries a man, her parents have to pay the man’s parents for the rest of their life. But don’t worry, if they can’t pay, it’s ok. They’ll just make the girl drink acid. Which is very common in India. Or they’ll beat her. Or kill her.

This is why nobody wants a girl. Women, even if they’re as young as 13, are used as reproduction machines. If they have a girl, they abort. If they don’t want to, they’re beaten or pushed down the stairs until they lose the baby. If they can’t, they kill the baby once she’s born, or starve her. 

> India

I’ll just keep on talking about India. There, men rape girls because they stayed out too late. And I’d tell you a story, if it wasn’t explicit and the most terrible thing you’d ever heard. If you’re curious, do look for ‘India’s daughter’ on Google. But don’t blame me if you’re shocked.

I’ve already said a lot about women being constantly threatened in India so I won’t say anything else, but I wish I could tell everything. 

> Personal experience

Because some people think that because it’s happening on the other side of the world, it somehow makes it less grave.

When I was fourteen, I was walking down the street and adults would catcall me. Two men, who looked about 50, stopped right in front of me so I couldn’t go away, and started staring at me from top to bottom. Then I bypassed them and they left me alone. I was so shocked and on the verge of crying. I seriously thought they wanted to rape me. And let me tell you, at that age, I looked young. Nobody could have mistaken me for an adult. And I was walking down the street.

Last december, I went to party with my family at a club. And I danced, I had fun. A guy then walked behind me and he caressed my lower back. He then looked at me to see if I was in, but quickly looked away when he saw the death stare I was giving him. Again, I was so shocked I might have cried. At first, I must admit I thought ‘you shouldn’t have danced like that’ but immediately, I told myself ‘No!  It’s not your fault! Should you have stood and not have fun? You’re in a club, he’s the perv!’

Same goes for clothes. You shouldn’t judge a woman on the clothes she wears.

> Emma Watson

Do you remember Emma Watson’s speech for the UN in September?

Well, the day after, she was threatened by hackers that said they would post nude pictures of her on the Internet (which didn’t even exist). This shows that no, we haven’t come far enough. Threatening to display one’s intimacy because she fights for human rights, does it sound normal to you?

As I explained earlier, men are also aimed at by gender stereotypes. And feminism isn’t all about women, but more about equality in general. I’m a feminist, but I also defend the LGBTQ community, in which I belong too. 

And if gender stereotypes are lessened for men, they’ll also be for women, and vice versa.

Remember when voting was allowed for women? When the right to abort was finally voted? 

We have to stand up for our rights. Because...

That’s it for today’s article. I hope you enjoyed it! 

As always, if you have a request or anything you’d like to tell me, make sure to message me either on Tumblr or with the ‘Contact’ page on my blog. You can also talk to me via my Facebook page. (The link is at the top of my Tumblr blog or on the top right on my blogspot.)

See you next Saturday!

Hugs,

Jill. x