Gender Equality (FIFY)

By: Ashli Howell

Recently, Emma Watson launched “HeforShe” as part of a United Nations initiative for gender equality. In the speech that Watson gave before the UN, she says that feminism has become, “synonymous for man-hating”. She goes on to say that the notion that feminism is a man-hating idea has to stop. And it does. Feminism is not man-hating, that’s misandry.

Misandry is the female version of misogyny; literally meaning the hatred of men and boys. Here at Kennesaw State University, we’ve been hearing quite a bit about misogyny – the hatred of women and girls, but not a whole lot about the gender opposite version, misandry. When I think of misandry, I think of an episode of Boy Meets World that I watched when I was in elementary school, where Topanga talks about a world where men are kept under ground and only used for breeding purposes. I remember thinking how awful that sounded.

I am a feminist, but I don’t hate men. Honestly, I had no idea that man hating was associated with feminism until recently. While researching “The Problem with the Men’s Right Movement” I started coming across websites like womenagainstfeminism.tumblr.com and a plethora of other sites. What I found surprised me: countless women denouncing feminism as a man-hating ideology that perpetuates a victim mentality and that feminism is no longer needed because we’ve reached full equality.

After visiting these websites, I was a little disappointed and confused. Like Watson, for me becoming a feminist was uncomplicated and seemed like a logical choice. I didn’t make the choice because I’m a victim, but because I recognize that some women (and men) are victims of physical and/or sexual abuse. And while I believe we’ve made great strides towards gender equality here in America, gender inequality still persists and it exists on a much larger scale around the world.

Now, obviously, all of these women are entitled to their own opinion. However, as Watson so eloquently said in her speech in front of the UN, “If you still hate the word, it is not the word that is important, it’s the idea and the ambition behind it.” That’s because feminism, at its very core, is about gender equality. Call it whatever you want, but if you believe that gender equality is something that society should be striving for, we are on the same side.

And just so that there is no misunderstanding, when I say gender equality, I mean that gender inequality is an issue that both genders have to cope with. We live in a society where men are more frequently taking the role of the ‘stay at home dad’, but their role has been minimized. A world where men are seen as the aggressive gender and don’t have emotions. We also live in a society where male Fox News presenters somehow seem to think that it is acceptable to crack jokes about a woman’s inability to park based on a stereotype that women cannot drive and having “boobs on the ground” when discussing a female United Arab Emirates fighter pilot that helped lead airstrikes in Syria. And a world where, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, two thirds of the world’s illiterate population are women.

Whether you believe Watson’s speech is a “game changer” or not, I think she’s right. “Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong. It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum, instead of two sets of opposing ideals. If we stop defining each other by what we are not, and start defining ourselves by who we are, we can all be freer, and this is what ‘HeForShe’ is about. It’s about freedom.”   I, for one, think that it is refreshing to see someone that society looks to for guidance, whether you think we should be looking to celebrities or not for guidance is an argument for a different day, standing up and saying that she is feminist and that she is fighting for gender equality.