Blog 6-Threshold of Revelation
At the beginning of the semester, I put that feminism was “the belief that women should be treated equal to men.” I still fully stand by this definition. However, I would like to be more specific and add something about women having the social, political, and economic equality of men. Also, I want to encompass other minorities into this definition. Everyone should be equal. I thought that feminism was just about women, but after this class my understanding has changed. Feminism is about equality across the board because the only way for one group of people to achieve true equality is for all groups to achieve equality. I did not realize just how connected the women’s movement was to the LGBTQQIAA movement until this class. They are virtually fighting for the same thing. Another thing that enhanced my understanding of feminism was the idea of gender being socially constructed. If the rigid strictures governing gender are eradicated, then maybe people will stop assigning roles to other people and see everyone as equal.
Another quote from my paper that I want to briefly discuss is the statement, “I want to quell the negative stigma on the female form.” I still believe this as well. Women are more than just their bodies. Also, women’s bodies are not meant to be judged because they don’t live up to a certain standard. It is no one else’s concern over what another person’s body looks like. However, the media puts such an emphasis on the “perfect” female body that women are forced to think that they have to look a certain way in order to be considered important. This kind of thinking only reinforces the idea that women are objects that are meant to be consumed by the male gaze. Women’s bodies are overly sexualized and overly criticized at the same time. These negative attitudes need to stop so that young girls can start to see that their self-worth is not in how they look. Also, they need to know that their bodies are their own.
