Misunderstandings about feminism

Misunderstandings about feminism:

Feminism, with the word we can draw a rough sketch that it relates to some female issues or has something to do with the females. Most of us carry this rough sketch we make, assume things and speak without proper research or understanding on the topic. I can see something like war going on in the social media platform on this very topic, especially among the young minds. Most of them don’t even know what the beliefs of feminism are, what feminism stands for, and what feminists want. They are just being the sheep and following everything they see on the social Medias. Here, I’m going to share some of the issues that I think are misunderstandings regarding feminism.

Pseudo-feminism:

Pseudo-feminism is one of the topics that must be discussed to clearly understand feminism and the misunderstandings about feminism. Pseudo- feminists talk about equality but want everything more than what men get. This is what a typical Pseudo-feminist looks like. Pseudo-feminism is when women use feminist stance, ideology and position to claim anti-feminist rights. Now, what are anti-feminist rights? In order to, understand it we have to go through the whole article.

We can see some women who think they are feminist, claims that there should be equal rights, but when it comes to duty, they are nowhere in sight. I’m a girl, “why should I propose?”” Why should I pay bills?”, “ Why should I stand in line?”,” I can harass a male”,” I can bit a man”, and so on. They don’t understand if it is wrong to objectify a woman, it is equally wrong to objectify a man. According to BBC news, 2-10% of rape accusations are proven to be fake. That figure does not include any unsubstantiated accusations where an investigation was unable to prove a sexual assault occurred, so an accurate figure for the total remains unknown. This shows total hypocrisy. We always see or read something like respect women, but what it should be is “respect those who deserve”. Feminism is not against men and not is support of anything that a woman does. Feminism is equality, either it be for rights or for duties. Feminism doesn’t support any kind of hypocrisy. Feminism supports equality for women, but at the same time it also doesn’t support inequality for men.

Quotas for women:

We, female were deprived of so many rights in the past days like no rights to study, no rights to share opinion, no rights to speak up for themselves, no right to work or earn money, being treated like outsider on their own house because they were to get married and go to their husband’s house etc. Just to make it clear, I’m not taking about the legal rights here. I’m talking about the moral rights. Gradually, things started to change. The minds of people started becoming wider. They started understanding the importance of female rights. But, the problem was, because of this decades long society structure, it was hard for women to just grow out of nowhere. That is why some quotas were provided to women for them to create a strong base in order to grow. It helps to rectify women’s representation in the wider scenario which is poor due to the decades long suppression. But at the same time, this doesn’t mean that an undeserving person should get the opportunity. Also, other issues like  reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment, and sexual violence came into highlight. We have seen a lot of changes taking place in these scenarios.

A man’s view:

From my own experiences, I have seen that so many of the men are insecure of the term feminism. They feel that anything related to feminism is against them and become overprotective towards their gender. Also, I can see so many men making meme about feminism like these:

Feminism is not this. Feminism is greater than these silly arguments. Feminism doesn’t believe in such irrational issues. There are a lot bigger issues to be dealt with. I don’t understand, why would sensible, understanding men be insecure by this? Are you afraid that female want equal rights or are you misunderstanding the term “feminism” with “pseudo-feminism”? I feel for most of them, it’s the second one. Feminism don’t just come for equal rights, it comes with equal share of duties too.

We can see the hostile sexism fading but the benevolent and internalized sexism still prevails. And as Emma Watson said,” If you stand for equality, then you’re a feminist. Sorry to tell you.”

Choice:

Most of us believe that feminism is just about female getting job, not just working for her family, female must earn etc. We believe that every feminist should get a job, she shouldn’t just take care of her family and so on. But the truth is, feminism gives women a choice to do whatever she wants. Feminism tells us that every individual is free to choose and that choice is empowering, no matter what the choice actually is. She can choose whether to work and earn for herself, or just look after her family, or both. This choice doesn’t stand true just for women, but for every individual. If a man wants to look after his house while his wife wants to earn for the family, what is the problem? What I think is that we have created an unnecessary pressure on men to be so-called “man of the house”. All of us have heard such term and more like “men don’t cry” and all. It again links with pseudo-feminism, if women are given choice, one can’t pressurize men for the duties and responsibilities. They have their choice too.

All these concept are so deep-rooted in our society and mind that, besides knowing all these, we are the same person doing all it. But as it is said, “change is the only constant”, changes will happen in the days to come. We can’t expect an overnight change on such deep-rooted concept. But, if we are together, we can make it happen. We can make this world a better place for everyone.

Comments on the “my views on feminism”:

From Bipana KC:

It’s critical to understand that “same” does not mean “equal.” Your words hit me hard like” Yes, to be very honest, we also knowingly or say unknowingly suppose that the household is our “mommy’s thing”. May be that’s what we were taught to. Maybe it will be offending to some, but still that is how the society was structured. However, slowly it is changing. Thank you for representing such bold thoughts from your side. Looking forward to more inspiring and motivating words from your blog.

Keep going. I follow your blog a lot.

From Nischal Adhikari:

I would like to do the analysis by breaking the different portion of article.

1) The differences and history part: I loved how the author has portrayed the differences that exist between men and women but yet they are beautiful. Each of us has their unique roles and we have to respect this uniqueness. The part where the author has said that maybe people feel better by suppressing other, I totally agree on that. People may have started following Charles Darwin theory “Survival of the fittest”.

     I loved the way author has challenged the injustices shown in The Mahabharata. The beginning of this article has such a huge impact on the readers.

2) The opinion part: Many people see feminism as the topic to speak against men. But this article has made it clear that feminism is about talking for the injustices happening to women. She has spoken against the men, women and this society who don’t let the women to move forward. The reference of daughter in law being disrespected by her mother in law is commendable. The society has been harsh with the women since the ancient period.

3) My counterpart: The things are changing nowadays and the article has not referred any of them. Men are treating women with respect nowadays and that day is not so far when women don’t have to ask for equality any more. But I can understand, since she is talking against the injustices and hence has not incorporated the positive things. But I would kindly request the author to write a full new article on the positive things, the changes that are happening.

Independent views on feminism:

From Oscar Dangal:

Feminism, an interesting and growing topic among all the youths out there all over the world I say. But very little of them do search on it before they put their thoughts upon. Going through simplest of its meaning, feminism can be said as the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. “ADVOCACY OF WOMENS' RIGHT" they say, and yet I see many women against the thought and many men in support for the same.

If you ask my viewpoint on this, I would say there should never exist something like FEMINISM as long as there is no MENINISM. I say that the terms FEMINIST and ANTI-FEMINIST are just a topics created by debaters to discuss and silence academic debate about Feminism. I believe in Secular Humanism (philosophy that embraces human reason, secular ethics and philosophical naturalism while emphasizing on rejection of superstition and supernaturalism as the basis of morality and decision making). And yet I must say, the paths of feminists and humanists often overlap. But, unlike Feminism or Meninism it doesn't emphasizes on any gender.

From Sweta Parajuli:

Whenever I hear about feminism, it literally makes me feel bad that how we female need to ask for our right in the society and why? Is there any such word as menism? And why not? To me feminism is not only about providing women with the rights and opportunity in the society, it is about eradication of the term gender which is the social biasness as per the biological sex. A win over when we start considering people with their capabilities without having a thought of them being either male or female. Feminism for me is equality where no men can dominate women just because of their sex and no female being victim for being a female. Feminism for me is the world with no gender, no superiority and no biasness. A social network with no more trolls regarding feminism. A condition when female stops making feminism their power to win over things and start believing themselves for their qualities. Feminism for me is the day when the word feminism no longer exists.