For some, why does the word “feminist” entail such a masculine image? Why does it hold a picture of a butch woman with short hair or a working woman in a business suit?
I’m a feminist and I am quite feminine. I don’t have a masculine build…I like to wear dresses and skirts…I usually have nail polish on…and yes, I like to do my hair and put on makeup. Does that make me less of a feminist? I believe in equal rights for all: women and men. I believe in safety and opportunity for all: women and men.
Making tea for your father, brother or husband when he comes home. Cooking food for your family (as a mom or daughter). Wearing a hijab throughout your life when in public. Is this oppression?
I think that there are so many lenses in which you can use to look at these situations. I think that it is completely situational.
Example:
We are all sitting at the table chatting away about the latest political case that has risen in the media. My mother and I get up from our seats to go and make some tea. We bring it to my sister, brothers, and father. “Thank you.”
If you were to ask my cousin why she wears a hijab, she answers with, “I see the care in keeping one’s beauty from the general public…”
Not “because I have to!”
To the “stranger’s” eye, they would be confused as to why she wears a hijab when not even her own mother wears one. Is there oppression here?
However, I’m not saying that oppression doesn’t exist. Those examples can easily be turned into oppression like examples.
I just have trouble with the thought of “every eastern woman is oppressed.” I can be a Middle Eastern woman, who wears a hijab, who likes to make tea for the males in my family, who cooks food everyday, and be a “feminist.”