Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Feminists are man-haters,
Don’t argue
Or they will kill you.
Well, what? You want to replace the Feminists with Feminazis? After all, isn’t feminism about gender equality and not the endorsement of a reversed patriarchy? Nonetheless, if the femicides of new-borns are one of the many reasons behind the advocacy of feminism, why is it that we have a part of the society demanding meninism so that unborn males are not aborted by their bearers?
Okay… maybe that was a little too much to absorb! Let’s break it down. Since the official dawn of feminism, there have been many oppositions from both men and women (yeah women, even though feminism started as the advocacy of women’s rights). Be it the resistance against suffrage rights back in the late 1800s or the denial of abortion rights in the 21st century, feminist endeavours are derogated. While we are still in a world where the basic rights of women need to be fought for, ideas of female supremacy have also arisen. Coined in the 1990s and popularized by the political commentator Rush Limbaugh over his radio show, ‘feminazism’ is such an extreme ideology indicating a “mass holocaust” of male children via abortion. Let’s also recognise that all those femicides and sex-selective abortions of female fetuses under patriarchy have been extreme too. Not to mention, the ratio of women aborting unborn sons to parents aborting unborn daughters is ridiculously low. Let’s be practical, patriarchy (i.e. male supremacy) is so much more prevalent than feminism, let alone feminazism.
In the present world, feminazi is used as a slang to demonize women advocating female rights (and very few times to refer to someone practicing female supremacy). And there is no doubt that this derogation is the product of patriarchy itself.
In fact, the demonization of women’s rights advocacy is so widespread in conservative societies, particularly of the third world countries, that feminism (and not feminazism) itself is frowned upon.
In addition, the failure to establish feminism as a gender-equality movement has led to meninism where men believe to have been victimised by “feminism”. Males fighting for equal rights are mostly observed in first world countries and seem to redundantly reiterate feminism and in some cases, misogyny. This has in turn resulted into anti-feminist beliefs not because these people practise patriarchy but because they regard feminism as a tyranny over both men and women. Hashtag Women Against Feminism is a social media movement of women disregarding feminism. But the problem here is that these people have characterised feminism in more like the original feminazism sense. Their reasons for detracting feminism include their partners not being abusive to them or them not wanting to torture their partners. It seems as if these women feel a pressure to enact feminism by protesting against men and not patriarchy. This is not true because feminism is against male supremacy not men.
So, why is it that feminism could not be accepted by everyone as a gender-equality movement? One is that the patriarchal society believes feminism as something against their age-old “sacred” gender biases. The second is the misrepresentation of feminism being only for women. Yes, feminism actively advocates for women’s rights and not men’s because feminism started off to bring justice to the inhumane practices against girls and women under patriarchy. And of course, there are more women to be rescued from patriarchy than there are men from feminazism. Hence, feminism is women-centric but not only for women.
While the resentment against and the active misunderstanding of feminism are what translate into active anti-feminism, there is also this passive anti-feminism silently ripping feminism into fragments.
Passive anti-feminism wears the semblance of feminism but poses traits which trivializes female empowerment. So, why is that an issue? Recognize that women empowerment is a strategy to promote gender-equality because females have forever been oppressed. Trivializing that dismantles the core ideology of feminism. Now, let’s meet the so-called feminist media (be careful, back-stabber alarm)!
Remember that Fair and Lovely advertisement which blatantly conveyed that fairness is the source of a woman’s confidence? The overemphasis on the word ‘equal’ (as in, the woman having equal financial status to the man she is about to wed) may spark feminism but you know how the marketing gimmick attacked right at someone’s induced insecurity to sell the product. It’s crazy how the commercialization of feminism is breeding a “feminist” media pivoted at the derogations held against women.
Nonetheless, what hurts the most is when you realize, the ‘hashtag feminism’ t-shirt you went wearing into the feminist rally of some esteemed celebrity, stories of which had flooded instagram (just for that day), was made by female garment workers in third world countries like Bangladesh, who are probably harassed, not well paid and don’t even have the basic sanitary necessities. This ignorance is truly a disgrace because of the contradiction. Just see, end of sexual violence, equal wages and access to sanitation all fall under the emergence and establishment of feminism. Leeching underprivileged women is against the notion of feminism which demands no discrimination of race, age, color or nationality.
How about a trip to Hollywood? Let’s see… Oh yeah! This one’s good! Captain Marvel!
Captain Marvel (yes, Marvel’s first movie with a solo female lead) triggers that guttural emotion of feeling empowered as you see her heroism. Well, that is if you believe in gender-equality and advocate that yes, women need real roles in films and not just that of the intimate partner. This leaves us with both the problems of active and passive anti-feminism involving the same film. Let’s face it; the fact that such an important Marvel superhero is a she spurred criticism from fans who cannot accept a female lead in all those actions of heroism. Are they exhibiting patriarchy (i.e. stuck in the mindset of female inferiority) or anti-feminism (i.e. misguided to a mindset of potential abusive female superiority), well, we can’t really tell.
Coming to the passive form, Captain Marvel is a rather shallow take on feminism as it showcases the woman’s empowerment comparing her capabilities to that of men.
It sets the notion that she is as awesome and strong as the men around her. In addition, the comparison with the previous established male superheroes is already there in the back of the mind. This brings me to the age-old feminist-ish statement, “girls are just as good as boys”. This was perhaps a very sacred statement for the feminists of the past but not now. Modern feminism is evolving to address the subtle things going on which trivializes females and get accumulated into discriminatory practices.
Perhaps the actual issue is that we all are not on the same page when it comes to feminism. Somewhere misogyny is claiming lives whereas somewhere protests over male inferiority are rioting the streets. Even worse, someone is covering a report on femicides while someone is criticizing a feminist movie. And while perhaps gender equality is the solution, the actual question that needs to be answered is how to implement the same.