Feminism is important in more ways than one
When I participated in my high school’s newspaper, I once wrote an opinion column about why I hated feminists. My editor-in-chief showed disapproval toward my words, and I chose to ignore it and try to see what was so faulty about my own opinion.
The column was luckily not published, and as my views since then have changed dramatically, I deserved all of the backlash and criticism I received.
Yes, I had spoken badly about feminists, and for no good reason. By being judgmental and generalizing all feminists, I looked like a jerk who had no compassion for what the feminist movement really is. Feminism is an imperative concept because of the unfair treatment people still undergo.
First off, I had no idea what feminism was. I thought it was just a bunch of people hating on men, and I figured that it was wrong. But obviously, those who want power to be in the hands of one person or gender are clearly not feminists, because feminism is all about equality for everyone.
I wish I had the courage to apologize to my editor, because I was childish and I was uneducated on the matter. I cannot stress how important it is to learn about feminism.
According to a The Huffington Post column, “In order to be considered a feminist, you only need to be on board with one idea: All humans, male and female, should have equal political, economic and social rights.”
I must admit that I was probably influenced to believe feminists were bad people because of how media and society portrayed them as man-hating people, but that’s not the case.
The only thing feminists wish to see is an equal arrangement of society, so women and men can truly be treated as equals and not have to worry about who gets paid more, who has to dress certain ways, why one gender has to act a specific way and which gender has more rights than the other.
On another note, feminists do not want people to think that feminism does not mean women should be in control and men do not have problems — they want to address the fact that we all need to be treated fairly, equally and as humans.
That is all it is — we are humans, and gender, age, sexual orientation or race should never categorize us. Humans are to be based on the quality of their character and their personalities and not on their outside appearance.
Feminism seems to have exploded in the last few years, and even the University of South Dakota has a club pertaining to gender equality.
The Association for the Advancement of Women’s Rights is right here at USD, which goes to show that even on campus people care about feminism.
Thinking about these things, it made me realize that I am a feminist, and I should never treat feminism as a redundant or overrated movement. When it comes to the rights of every human being, I am all for it.
