VOLUME 31, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2022 PAGE 10
Culture
Photo: Giacomo Ferroni
Misconceptions in gender equality: the truth of feminism By: Ivona Lu Latinovic
F
eminism. What is it and what's the huge misconception about it? Feminism is an ongoing movement, and has been for many years; however only in recent years has it become more widely discussed, across social media, in school, and in the media. With this in mind, there are some misconceptions and misunderstandings when it comes to the meaning of this movement. Often on social media, we come across influencers on Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, Twitter, or even strangers and friends expressing their hatred for males. We see videos of them saying things like, “I hate all men” or, “men suck” while also calling themselves a feminist. This confuses young adolescents about what feminism truly is and what
gender equality means. The problem occurs when people connect feminism to men-hating; they think that feminism is a movement to bring men down. However, this is not the case. Feminism is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. Feminism is about giving women choice. It’s about equality, and it’s about supporting each other, not about hating men or forcing female superiority over the rights of men. “Fighting for women's rights has too often become synonymous with men-hating”, says Emma Watson. Oftentimes, people believe that bringing down men and fighting for women's rights are the same, which is not true. It creates a stigma where men may feel uncomfortable being a part of this
movement, and unsure of where to stand even when they want to support gender equality. In this case, gender equality affects males too, although in different ways and not to the same extent as women. There are times we see in the media when men are wrongfully imprisoned by gender-based stereotypes. Sometimes the stereotypes around men may result in these types of situations. An ongoing problem is when a male of any age is suffering from a mental illness, and is unable to ask for help in fear that it would make them ‘less of a man’. There’s this influx of subliminal messaging around the fact that most men feel they can't be a feminist partly because it is associated with females, and because too often they receive hate as part of this
movement. Gender equality is about equal rights, where no gender is superior. All genders should have the right to their own feelings and emotions. All genders should feel free to be strong or sensitive, and have characteristics that may not be stereotypically associated with their sex. It should be a right that women are paid the same as their male co-workers for the same job. It should be a right that women are afforded the same respect as men. It should be a right that women are not viewed as weak or powerless based on their gender. These are considered human rights. It’s imperative we start doing something about this because if we continue down the road of doing nothing it will take 75 years before women can ex-
pect to be paid the same as men, for the same amount of work. According to the UN, even in 2022, no country in the world has achieved gender equality, and no country will be able to achieve gender equality by 2030 based on current growth. This is hugely problematic—we've known the extent of this issue for hundreds of years, and clearly not much is changing. We are clearly doing something wrong. Spreading hate toward males will only make this worse whereas encouraging and creating a comfortable space for them to join this movement can help us achieve gender equality. Teaching young kids stereotypes of their gender and saying things like, “girls are meant to wear dresses and sit and look pretty,” or “don’t cry,
and man up, you look weak,” are the complete opposite to what we should be doing. Before we do anything else we need to truly understand what feminism is, and be able to spot and fix the misconceptions that come with this movement.
