Feminism is undoubtedly a controversial topic. Often, when women introduce themselves as a feminist, they are met with audible groans, awkward glances and sometimes even anger and are ridiculed for their ideology. As brought up in class, McRobbie articulates that feminism is unpopular because it is considered a thing of the past, it is aged and made redundant due to the tropes of freedom available in modern society. Perhaps female oppression today is not as salient as it was once before, but anyone who claims that we live in a society where women don’t automatically face discrimination needs a severe reality check. Take the disparity in wages and the glass ceiling effect for example. Furthermore, many adverse misperceptions such as feminism is about women being better than men, about giving women superior status in society and that feminists are passive aggressive man-haters add to the unfavourable opinion on feminism. These misunderstandings are largely due to ignorance and it is important to alleviate these errors in apprehension to strive towards gender equality.

     Feminism is the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. Whether the oppression of women is due to the system of patriarchy, capitalism, male prejudice against women, or a combination of the above, the solution is making structural changes which ensure equal treatment of the sexes. I believe the way to do so is to make feminism (or more accurately, gender equality) more appealing to men and to increase their participation and support as it is incontestably men who hold power for social change. As many of you have heard on popular media, Emma Watson was named a U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador and recently delivered a game changing speech on feminism with the launch of the “HeForShe” campaign which aims to galvanize one billion men and boys as advocates for ending the inequalities that women and girls face globally. By involving both genders in the HeForShe campaign, Emma Watson hopes to abolish the “us vs. them” mentality. I have
attached the video of the campaign. Check it out if you haven’t already done so! I have also attached a comic on sexism and gender equality that I thought was cute.

Cheers,

http://www.funnyjunk.com/True+equality+worth+the+read/funny-pictures/5317966/