This question is an interesting one because I think some people have confused feminism with women wanting to be superior.

The english dictionary defines feminism as: Advocacy of equality of the sexes, and the establishment of the political, social, and economic rights of the female sex. In simpler terms if they are needed, feminism is defined as equality between the two sexes (not to be confused with genders, but this is a topic for a different day).

An example of feminism is the Suffragette movement, the argument that women should get the right to vote, or should be able to be represented in a political situation. However I’ve heard the argument from boys/men today that they can’t do anything without being labelled as a creep or sexist. Or that being a man in this day and age is so difficult because they can’t do anything.

Well if I’m honest I find it hard to agree with them. Women, especially women of colour, have been victimised, and treated as inferior for thousands of years, yet as soon as the white men and boys get a taste of it, they are saying it is unacceptable.

I think it’s fair enough to say that context matters though. What’s happening at the moment isn’t exactly equality across the board, because women now have more power when they say a man is being creepy/sexist but then the gender pay gap still exists. Men are also now expected to always be the ones in the wrong, and are discriminated against in education, which I think is unfair. Let me give you an example, that happened at my intermediate / middle school.

A group of year eight boys were throwing around a ball outside a classroom, sometimes they’d say things to express disappointment when they dropped their ball but they weren’t swearing loud enough for people to hear. When a female teacher passed, and they dropped the ball, they were told they were being disruptive to the other students and to put the ball away, but she completely ignored the year seven and eight girls screaming their heads off when they missed a shot at handball.

The girls were being much more frustrating and everyone was telling them to stop, but it was the boys playing piggy in the middle making barely any noise that were told they were being disruptive because they swore once or twice, like groups of 13 year olds hadn’t heard the f-word. The screaming was much more annoying and disruptive.

So to the men, think before you say feminism and advocacy for women has gone too far, and to the women, even though women have been treated as inferior, it’s not fair to say men have to be treated as inferior now, strive for equality, not payback or revenge.