I once had someone tell me that as a feminist, my sole aim was to strip away a man’s rights. This was in response to my senior quote, “Feminist. A person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.” Don’t ask me how this clear definition led someone to conclude that men’s rights would be stripped away; I’m scratching my head to this day.
But I couldn’t attribute such a misunderstanding to a simple lack of comprehension, or the simple truth, “you can’t fix stupid.” (argue all you want, but you can’t actually fix stupidity), for many believe the word, “feminist” to be less about equality and more about the stripping away of male rights. They see those who identify themselves as a feminist a right terror. I’m 5 foot 3 inches, rather plump, and my eyes are planets on a round face. A terror, indeed.
But the controversy that surrounded my senior quote forced me to ponder how the simple desire for equality had such a negative stigma to its syllables. It made me realize that only something so powerful could cause people to have such variegated opinions of it; the word, “feminist” causes people to both shudder in fear with veiled disgust and is a clarion call that heats the blood demanding equality. It creates a mosaic of sentiments, opinions and actions that reveal the underlying thrums of power.
My ultimate aim with my prose is to show that “feminism” is far from wanting to strip away men’s rights, and to reveal the power of feminism through the millennium. Each new issues of the column will focus on one entity and the role it played in making feminism so undeniably powerful, while the history of feminism is told through their contributions. I will of course utilize supporting evidence, facts and details that have been checked, double checked and triple checked through the glorious resource that is the Internet. Hopefully the accuracy will be unquestionable as to prevent any confirmation bias, for I believe those who counter a solid definition (like that individual who is responsible for my itchy head) do so through this annoying psychological concept.
Before we begin, I must reveal to you a terrible truth; I am a feminist. And now some of you will probably question the validity of a novel supporting feminism and examining feminism from the prose of a feminist, scared that I may turn you into a feminist, but I ask you to bear with me. I will not throw quotes and opinions at you like hail in a snowstorm. Rather I will dust them in like sugar on a lemon cookie. And the genius in this is that by the end of this column, once you’ve read about the true definition of feminism and its power through the ages, you’ll find yourself suddenly a brand new feminist, wondering what the hell just happened. And to that I say, well my friend, that is just the magic of words.
To be continued in the next issue…