Feminism: A frustrated midnight message
by Scarlet Bringuenti Bennett
Yesterday, I was told by my sister, “women have equality.” I can’t explain the way I felt at that very moment. How can a woman even think that? Inequality is everywhere for women, whether you are LGBT, a minority, poor or a woman with more money than you know what to do with. It’s everywhere.
And it is because of these three words I need to put the word out there that inequality for women will always be there unless people stop detesting the term feminism. The definition of feminism is: “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.” Feminists are not, to coin the term, ‘man haters,’ but we are here to be heard. I want to educate people (such as my sister) to inform men and women that to call yourself a feminist is the only way this world will become a better place for all.
In America a 2014 study showed that the gender pay gap is alive and well in all 50 states. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women make approximately 78 cents for every dollar a man makes. The wage gap is even larger for women of colour: African-American women earn 64 cents for every dollar a white man makes, and Latina women earn a mere 56 cents.
This is a country that’s supposed to be far more developed (whatever that means) than most. In Saudi Arabia and Morocco rape victims can be charged with the crime as they will be blamed for leaving the house without a male companion.
Disregarding things this extreme however, women from an early age are sexualised early, told by boys and sometimes adults that they aren’t able to do a certain thing because it’s not ‘lady like,’ or quit sports early because they are embarrassed to have muscles.
Whether you want to admit it to yourself or not, and despite major progress in women’s rights, an abundance of proof is out there that inequality is still prevalent in today’s society.It must also not be forgotten that men need to be fought for too.
So please, I am simply writing this to urge you as an individual, if you have never wanted to call yourself a feminist because of what you assume or have come across with a marginal group of women that don’t represent what feminism really is about, I hope this post encourages you to educate yourself and discover that we are only here to fight for what both men and women everywhere deserve. Equal Rights.