I Need Feminism Because...

Given the attention my last blog post got, I'm going to go with something a little less controversial but still important today.

As I mentioned yesterday, I put on Who Needs Feminism? as a Housing and Residence Life program.  Some people participated, some asked me to put it on today (which I did).  In total, I had about forty-two people write their message and take their picture; thirty-five on Friday, and seven or so today.  That's a really good number for most of my programs.  An astonishing number, even.  Typically, I get anywhere from zero to five people when I put on an event.

While I learned a lot programming-wise through this event, I was surprised by some of the things I learned about my school.

As many of you know, I attend a women's college.  While not all students here identify as female, the vast majority do.  (Those who identify as genders or non-genders that do not match the ones with which they were born physically/assigned tend to get on board with these movements, so I've noticed, too, though.)  Despite this, when called out to in the dining hall lobby to participate, some interactions went as follows:

Me/Member of FMLA: Do you need feminism, *name*?
Student: Uh...I need an A on my Math test!

And then they promptly left.

I was tempted on several occasions to remind them that, without feminism, they might not even have an opportunity to take a test, let alone get an A on it.

I really don't understand how on a campus of more than seven hundred students, so many looked me right in the eye with a skeptical sort of expression and went on their merry way.  How can this be?

My school makes its strong feminism values very clear.  They are proud to be a women's college.  In fact, Hollins was an answer on Jeopardy for being the only school without a mascot.  Damn straight we don't need a mascot; we can represent ourselves.

So why was the participation so relatively low?  Were they afraid?  Do they really not believe in equality?

My guess is it's a lack of understanding of the word "feminism" in many cases.  So many people have the misconception that "feminism" means "man hater" or "for lesbians only" or any number of typically negatively associated words (for the record, I personally do not have any negative feelings regarding the word "lesbian" or the lesbian community; we all know, however, that "gay" is not an unusual word to be used as an insult).  People have consistently associated feminism with bad things.  They preface things they say with, "I'm not a feminist, but...".  This is an issue.

While I feel that feminism can mean different things to different people, I think, in general, feminism is a positive thing that everyone should be on board with.

Going back to the idea of "man haters," I came across www.whoneedsfeminism.org, which is a site that is the exact opposite of what the Who Needs Feminism? movement tries to accomplish.  Men, mainly, post sarcastic "reasons why they need feminism," sometimes citing things like females abusing them physically and emotionally.  What they fail to realize is that feminism is not just about getting equality for women.  Feminism is about equality for everyone -- women, men, gay, straight, bisexual, American, Irish, Australian, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Japanese, Canadian (excuse me for stopping my list there -- it's impractical to list all the countries, but you get my drift), red heads, brunette, blondes, blue-haired people, etc.

I'm tired of having to be angry, and I'm only twenty-one.  Women before me fought far harder and far longer for what I have and it's still not equal.  Why are women my age letting all of that fall away?  Why are they ignoring it?

I typically try to answer as much as I can when I writing this blog rather than posing questions and not answering them.  But the problem is, I don't have a good answer for this one.  I don't know if I ever will.

It makes me sad that it is the truth, the reality, that I live.  It makes me sad that I am always conscious of when I am alone in a mall or walking down the street because I am a woman.  It makes me sad that men experience domestic abuse more frequently than women, but it goes unreported because women typically can cause less damage to a man than a man can to a woman.

This is why I need feminism.

But maybe the question shouldn't be, "Why do you need feminism?" but, "Why don't you think you need feminism?"