My definition of feminism...
Feminism had and always will be a controversial topic in our society. While I do not disagree with feminism, I don’t find myself to be an extreme advocate for it either. Through the courses that I have taken in the past that focused solely on women, I was already familiar with the concept of feminism. Through my knowledge and beliefs, I define feminism as a movement of equality to advance women’s rights. Among those rights is the idea of equal work-equal pay.
Furthermore, while I agree with bell hooks definition of feminism in which she stated “feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression” (pg 1), I don’t find her message about the unification of feminism very convincing. Feminism itself is a very powerful foundation. However, there are so many different beliefs and ideas within feminism that make it impossible for a complete alliance. In other words, different groups of feminists have different values and goals that most of the times; it is hard to come to an agreement. For instance: while radical feminists focus their effort on changing the very foundation of how our society was established, liberal feminists strive their hardest for gender equality. I personally find myself to share the same values with those who are liberal. I don’t see the point of going so far as to uplift the foundation of our society. Is it necessary? Or is it even possible. What does it really mean to change our foundation and what than would our society become? Couldn’t that society also be established as long as there are equalities between genders? What more can be expected if there is no more wage discrepancy between men and women? Isn’t enough that sexism no longer exists? Overall, eventhough I’m not arguing with the fact that feminism has indeed revolutionized our lives, I find it sometimes contradicting and don’t think that it could ever harvest the complete one hundred percent support from people.
Comments
I think that your post is very clear and interesting. I too don't disagree with what "feminism" stands for, but I don't agree with it either. I brought up in class whether gender equality is the most important thing to deal with first and I wonder if feminism will ever go farther than gender. If people will ever see feminism as a bridge between people with differences. Instead of working against oppression because of gender, how about working against oppression for all people not gender focused? Doesn't gender specificity enclose the possibilities for change and what good does it really do for the society to end sexism if people are still struggling to survive? Thanks for your thoughts. I appreciated them.
Posted by: Abby Newberg | January 29, 2007 12:37 AM