Feminism is not as inclusive as it sounds
I was recently shocked to learn that not all women are feminists. In fact, I remember talking to a group of friends in high school about how feminist they believed they were, and I was unpleasantly surprised to learn that most of them did not support the movement in the first place.
I was so shocked that I started questioning my own feminism. I started wondering what made so many people — especially women — not identify as feminists, or even worse, identify as anti-feminists. How can someone not believe in equality? How can some women reject and not support a movement that was literally created to empower them? How could this be? I mean it’s not like they didn’t believe in equal rights, right? I was outraged — to say the least — so I decided to do some research to attempt to understand their point of view.
One of the most common reasons I found for not identifying as a feminist was that they felt that identifying as a feminist forced them to adhere to certain views that they may not agree with personally. For example, it might be peculiar to be a feminist and be pro-life, right? Just saying those two things together can be considered oxymoronic by nature. You might also think that it’s odd to be a feminist and support arranged marriages. But what happens if you want to practice feminism AND save unborn babies? Or if you want to be a feminist AND believe in arranged marriage and its benefits? What might someone receive if they do? Backlash. And that’s exactly what many women who oppose feminist views receive.
First-wave feminism, from the 19th and early 20th century, focused primarily on granting women legal rights such as the right to vote. As time passed, and with the emergence of the third, more modern, wave of feminism, the focus shifted from providing women with rights and opportunities to creating a generation of women who behave, think, and act a certain way. Nowadays, some feminists equate being a feminist to mean that you have to be pro-choice and hate Donald Trump. Maybe someone already is pro-choice and hates Donald Trump, but just the fact that they have to follow these guidelines to be welcome in the feminist club is deterring.
For me personally, I do identify as a feminist, I do support certain time-honoured traditions and practices, and I do choose to dress modestly and wear the hijab. However, at some point, I was scared to identify as a feminist because I thought I wasn’t “doing it right.”The media portrayed feminists as strong women wearing provocative clothing, not someone dressed modestly in a hijab, like me.
All of a sudden, feminism has become so exclusive. Some feminists claim that feminism is all about giving women choice. But is it? Is it really about choice when feminists impose a set of rules to try to mold women into people that they are not, and then force certain political and social views upon them?
As a result, many people have responded to this transformation of what feminism really means by not identifying as feminists at all, or even opposing the movement. But is that the solution? I highly doubt it.
This response does show a clear stance, however, but it is more damaging than beneficial. In my opinion, the solution is to challenge the limitations and contradictions that exist in modern-day feminism while continuing to advocate for equity. Because after all, feminism is a man-made system that is far from perfect.
So at the end of the day, am I a feminist? Yes. But I refuse to be molded into anything I do not genuinely believe in. I will continue to uphold my beliefs, views, and values while keeping women’s best interests in mind.
Photo courtesy of Alexa Mazzarello via CC0