A look at what feminism represents at its core and why so many still hate it.
In an article in Forbes, Kathy Caprino explains her definition of feminism, and why many women and men hate it. Caprino covers gender equality extensively and shares her thoughts on what feminism is and why so many people still resist it. One thing that is clear about the subject is that people are very divided on it; many people already think we have gender equality. Then there are some who don’t think there should be any equality between the sexes (similar to the reading of Kesselmen et al in “Our Gang of Four”, there was discrimination present “against blacks and just plainly against girls who didn’t fit into the standards of what men thought they should be”) and others that feel there is much work to be done to attaining equality between men and women. Meanwhile, a crowd of the population believes in equal rights but refuse to care for the word or label of “feminism”, and being “feminist”, or even seem to be in favor of the women’s movement. The article delves into the factors that determine how we feel about the issue through our own personal experiences. If we’ve faced inequality, then we know it exists. If we haven’t, we might not be as likely to believe, understand or acknowledge inequality. Like the reading of Barbara Cameron’s “Gee You Don’t Seem Like An Indian From The Reservation”, a majority of people alienate women to the degree that when they realize women are just as articulate, smart and capable as them, they are taken aback. Cameron uses astrology terms, “arrogant rising, moon in oppression and sun in destruction” to describe the effect men cause to women. Kathy Caprino states that she believes in unconscious gender biases that we have within ourselves, besides our experiences, and given this large divide, she goes on to further explain what would be helpful in the debate. One thing that could be helpful is to elaborate on what feminism means: the equality of rights and opportunities for women and men, but that doesn’t necessarily mean sameness. Finally, Caprino points out several reasons why some people hate the term “feminism” and fear the idea or action of a movement. The main reasons are due to feminism being associated with strong, forceful women, a fear that men will lose out, and that we (women) will overturn time honored traditions. She closes the article with rhetorical questions for the reader to ask ourselves, trying to get us to think deeply on our unconscious biases, “Do your beliefs and behaviors support equality for all, or just for some?”.
