My Two Cents on Feminism

Here's the thing: women do not stand on equal footing as men. That is an incontrovertible fact one would be quite ignorant to deny, but as much as I enjoy seeing women be empowered and oppressive social systems be deconstructed, there are certain "feminist" thinking I've seen circulating the social sphere that I believe is potentially harmful.

It is the fact that feminine women are underestimated, that the notion of feminism is portrayed largely as women being dominant, badass, and you could say, in a sense, about women being "masculine."

To clarify, I am not discarding the fact that women are tied down to stereotypical, heteronormative gender roles, because they absolutely are, and the heart of feminism is to advocate for women to break out of this restrictive box and glass ceiling that prevents them from aiming for anything other than what their sex dictates them to be.

For discussion's sake, I define femininity as the traits traditionally associated with women, such as sensitivity, nurturance, generosity, and the like. But gender is only a social construct, and so gender roles don't hold much water empirically; we shouldn't be paining a person to this dichotomous perspective. Obviously, women can be masculine, and men can be feminine.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a culture of feminism being a form of competition. The issues lies in the fact that feminine women get looked down upon, sometimes by fellow women. Pitting women against each other and creating this hierarchy of feminism is a toxic and selective mindset that only perpetuates sexism and misogyny. Feminism is about letting women be who they want to be, without prejudice nor harassment.

Women being feminine does not perpetuate sexist ideals—rather, the thought that there is something inherently wrong with being feminine is the problem, NOT femininity in itself. Society has brainwashed people to believe that "feminine" traits are inferior to "masculine" traits, but that is false. Only when society sees these two traits on equal footing do I believe we can achieve true equality.