If You're Not a Feminist, You're an Idiot.

What exactly is feminism, and why are many women so quick to repudiate it? According to Google (the fountain of all knowledge), the definitions are:

fem·i·nist

Noun

A person who supports feminism.

fem·i·nism

Noun
The advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men.

Based on its definition, I'm hoping I don't have too much faith in the human race when I say that I believe there would be very few people in this part of the world who would not support the advocacy of women's equality to men.

Many females these days will actually tell you that they are anti-feminism. I pertain that it's not feminism itself that so many women are against - it's society's perception of feminism. Often feminists are portrayed as loud, angry, hairy man-haters. Understandably, most females who actually are feminists (but may or may not know it) prefer not to be depicted in this way. Many women try to renounce feminism by making contradictory statements like 'I'm not a feminist, but...<insert comment relating to the need for gender equality here>'

As a feminist myself I don't hate men, I'm not (overly) loud, and am rarely hairy. I like to take pride in my appearance and (usually) try to dress nicely. If a man does complement me on my appearance, well then that's great. Feminism isn't about letting yourself go, not shaving your legs and hurling insults at every man who looks in your general direction. Most heterosexual feminists like to look nice to the opposite sex, we just don't want to be reduced solely to our appearance. No human does.

I probably do sometimes fit the 'angry' part of the feminist generalisation. However my anger is more to do with women than men. Men who make sexists comments aren't worth bothering about, it's just ignorance and I don't have time for it. My reaction is usually 'Meh...bogan'. What does piss me off is women who perpetuate sexist stereotypes by acting like twits around men as a way of flirting. Why reduce yourself to that?

We are still nowhere near where we need to be in regards to equality: men are still getting paid more than women for the same jobs, women are still judged more on their appearance than their abilities, and women who work the same hours as men are still expected to do most of the housework and child rearing. It doesn't make much sense, so of course I'd like to see change. That doesn't make me an obnoxious antisocial man-hater, it just makes me someone who likes to stand up for what's right.

There really shouldn't be such a negative connotation around feminism. Society's misconceptions about feminism can only be changed if more people (both men and women) aren't afraid to stand up and call themselves feminists.