Friday, March 11, 2016

Metaphorical War: Feminism

Feminism has been the forefront of society's greatest struggles to end gender discrimination and prejudice, along with abolition. Fighting the unequal standards of both men and women has been a "metaphorical war" in the sense between those who support feminism and those who oppose it. Similarly, slaves have fought the same “metaphorical war” to gain justice for their cruel role in society as mere animals and property. The reason people, particularly men have opposed feminism is for a numerous amount of reasons, such as sustaining male supremacy, ego, and traditional thinking, similar to the dominant males of white society who deemed themselves superior to African Americans. However, the greatest barrier between males and females in present day is the false portrayal of modern feminism on numerous outlets, such as social media. The misconception of feminism for what it actually represents is the main issue in creating continual progress of equality.

Feminism was solely created by women to reach equality between both genders after being oppressed by men throughout all of history. Abolition was created for the similar reason of separating slaves from slaveholders and gaining equal rights in society, just like women. Many activists from both causes see that this equality hasn’t been achieved because of the same reason it failed to reach success in the past. Anybody who has power will not willingly let it go or agree to share it with someone else. Males, especially white domineering males of the past have naturally gained the right to supremacy through their traditional role of both physical and mental strength. Men who have these characteristics or simply have the gender to represent it remind women of their gender bias on social platforms, such as Twitter to sustain their high social standing. One social media account famous for conveying this message on a daily basis is known as "Menimists", a male supremacy group on the Internet. This page is dedicated to empowering men by degrading merely women. As a result of the negative responses to feminism, many activists react by directing negative language and blame on the male population for their appeasement.

The irrational and anger driven solution to sexism by some feminists has been to target all men on social media for whatever issue that seems to be on hand. By using hashtags, such as #killallmen, feminists have made it permissible to use negative language and tone for getting their point across. However, what feminists do not understand when spreading messages like this is that they portray the opposite of everything they are trying to achieve. The one and only goal of feminism is to advocate equality for both genders, however, in this case feminists only convey the desire to eliminate men and initiate supremacy for women. 

Both argument strategies by men and women are the everlasting boundary between male and female equality, and can only be connected again if there is mutual understanding between both genders. Language and communication are the greatest tools humans have. Using positive language to get a perspective across and influence close-minded mentalities is the only way to reach success in the fight for equality.

Kaba, Mariame, Andrea Smith, Lori Adelman, and Roxane Gay. "Where Twitter and Feminism Meet." The Nation. N.p., 17 Apr. 2014. Web. 09 Jan. 2016.

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