Thatâs a very good question and thank you for asking so politely.Â
The word feminism was coined by Charles Fourier in 1837, a French philosopher who advocated for the emancipation of women because he believed society treated women as slaves. We werenât allowed to vote, own anything, or work a real job. Women were ruled by their fathers/household patriarch until they married at which time theyâd be under the rule of their husband. If a woman did not belong to male household she was shunned by society and had very little means to make money, most of them unsavory. You know the idiom ârule of thumbâ? That comes from a running joke that started in the 1600s, and was still around in Fourierâs time, that said it was okay for a man to beat a woman with a stick as long as it wasnât any thicker than his thumb.Â
The point of the word feminist, and the feminist movement, has never been to say that women are better than men. The point is that women and things associated with women have been given a lesser place in society and we want to bring those things up to a place of equality. The focus is on the feminine because thatâs whatâs being pushed down. However, focusing on the feminine does not mean weâre focusing only women. Men are belittled and called âless of a manâ anytime they portray a trait that is associated with femininity. If women and the feminine were equal to men and masculinity then that wouldnât happen. Feminism is about raising up things associated with females to have an equal place in society as the things associated with males. Itâs called feminism, not equalism, because the focus is on raising up not tearing down. Equalism would suggest that male things need to come down to a lower level so that female things can meet it in the middle. Thatâs not the point. The point is to raise up the feminine so that itâs on the same playing field that the masculine is already on. We donât want men to lower themselves, we just want them to make room for us.
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