Why All Human Beings Should Be a Feminists

By Nivedita Shrestha

With the growing use of internet and social media, people throughout the world have attained various platforms to voice their opinions. Various issues gained massive popularity in a short period of time, one of them being feminism. Feminism is used time and again amidst conversations; its popularity has skyrocketed within a few years. But surprisingly, everyone seems to have a different definition of the single word.

Some consider feminism as an act of claiming that the females are weak and are in need of protection, some consider it as a synonym of man-hating, and some even consider it as a desperate call for attention by women who have ceased to gain male attraction. Others believe that feminism simply means that women need to be treated as an equal counter-part of men. In other words, feminism says that females are just as human as the males are. 

While the primary objective of feminism is to empower women, it does not necessarily mean feminists view all women as weak and oppressed. Feminists do not aim to make women stronger; we already know we are strong. We simply wish for society to see that too. Moreover, empowering women doesn't mean belittling or punishing men. Men, too, suffer from gender role assumptions that place expectations upon them to live and act in a certain manner. Feminists believe we all should be viewed based on our individual strengths and capabilities instead of our gender. They believe everyone should be treated with equality - irrespective of their sexuality. 

Now I've faced arguments that accuse feminism of not favoring equality; feminism simply claims superiority of the female gender. After all, the name itself says 'feminism'. Any word with the prefix 'femina' is bound to be inclined to females. The word is gendered so it is all about the superiority of women, right? 

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Let's just forget words like MAN-power, MAN-hour, sales-MAN, chair-MAN, fresh-MAN or air-MAN. Of course we realize that women are mentioned in the English language too. But, if you are a man and you have chosen to do something 'unmanly', remember that's girly shit. If you play sports, don't throw like a girl. Dismiss anything women talk about as ‘girl talk’. In short: don't be such a woman. Besides, you can't be annoyed at feminism for being called feminism when for the entire history, human race has been called 'mankind'. 

Fingers have been pointed towards the need of feminism in the present society. Men often claim that females are in fact treated as an equal counterpart of males and females too, occupy the leading political and commercial posts. But they fail to notice how different their struggles are to reach where they need to be. How a man is judged by his credibility and a woman is judged by her outfit of choice, how sexual harassment in workplaces cause women to quit their jobs, how things like marriage and bearing a child are forced upon her regardless of her desire for those things. Just because it's not happening to you, doesn't mean it's not happening at all.

So now, it is high time we join forces to attain the ultimate goal: making the world a better place to live in. This is not just a burning topic anymore, this is a revolution. We fight against misogyny in all forms. Rape culture, internalized misogyny, patriarchy, gender roles; they all pose stark challenges against equality. And as feminists, we join forces to fight against them so that in near future, no woman ever has to wish she were a man.