The Trials and Tribulations of an Independent Woman, Episode 2

Am I a feminist?

-I promise to keep this brief

The basis of feminism is "the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes (men, women, transgender, etc)" - (Merriam Webster)

Feminism is also an assemblage of movements that are "organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests" - (Merriam Webster)

• Do I believe that there should be political, economic, and social quality of all sexes?

             Yes.

• Do I believe there needs to be organized activity on behalf of women's right?

             Is grass green? Is the moon approximately 238,857 miles to the moon? Uh, yea!

And I do believe that there are a lot of people who would agree with the aforementioned above, however, the term feminism is becoming a word that is associated with extreme beliefs in terms of women's rights. Because of this, people are shying away from identifying themselves as feminist. Insert overused cliche' here: One bad apple spoils the bunch. I have heard plenty of people (especially women) talk about women being treated poorly in certain situations because of said gender and then saying "Don't get me wrong though, I'm not a feminist". However, by definition these women are feminist, along with men too who have the same beliefs. 

Maybe its just me and my equality-toting ways, but I really think that the term "feminism" should be embraced more so than getting what I believe is an unjust bad reputation. Like any organized group of particular beliefs, people are going to take said beliefs and express them how they so chose. For instance with Christianity, the belief is in one God, that Jesus is his son etc however there are different branches of Christianity (Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian...etc), with how many different versions of the bible?

So my beliefs of what I think feminism is, including said definitions above:  it is the ability to make decisions and not be judged based off of ones gender about them. If a woman wants to have a career, so be it. If she wants to stay at home and raise her kids, so be it. Whatever makes her happy in her life whether she wants to have a modern role or more traditional role within her household she shouldn't be judged socially, hindered by it through our public policies, nor no careers available for her because of her gender. And I feel the exact same way about men. If he wants to have a career, so be it. If he wants to stay home and raise his kids, so be it. Whatever makes him happy in his life whether he wants to have a modern role or more traditional role within his household he shouldn't be judged socially, hindered by it through our public policies, nor no careers available for him because of his gender.

So ask yourself, are you a feminist? And if not, why not?
~Daé, a BossBeauty