Feminism. An eight letter word created in pursuit of gender equality. This political ideology started with the suffragettes in the late 19th century to give women the opportunity to vote. But has the name of this political ideology given a bad impression to most people? Unfortunately for feminists, many sources say that it has. 

People say that it should be called feminism because women have less political, social and economic rights than men. Yes, this is true, but naming this suggests the idea that you are ONLY pushing to increase the rights of women (which is the only thing that has happened in feminism protests so far, according to my knowledge), and completely see the hardships of being a man as insignificant. If a woman is treated the same way as a man, and is also treated like a lady, then then there will be no more advantages of being a man. “How will it come to this?”, you might ask. Well, since there are good things and bad things about being a man, and good things and bad things about being a woman, if feminism continues the same way it is working now, it will destroy all the negatives of being a woman and will leave all the bad things about being a man. Thus, making feminism a very hypocritical thing, and turning the world into a place where women are strongly favoured over men.

Feminists say that women have too much responsibilities, and they blatantly ignore the fact the men have a HUGE amount of responsibilities as well. Men are expected to man up the same way women are expected to be ladylike. Because of things like this, feminism has given off a lot of bad impressions, the Washington Post and the Kaiser Foundation’s feminism poll reveals that many still think of feminists as angry and antagonistic towards men and is more extreme than equality of all the sexes. However, the overwhelming majority of those who answered this survey still believe in gender equality. In the question “Is feminism bad?” on debate, a website where people debate about their opinions, 70% of people said that it was a bad thing, and 30% said it wasn’t. Despite this, all of the featured points on why feminism was bad, also stated that gender equality was good, and felt as if feminism has turned into women bossing men around.

Similarly to women, men have a number of social disadvantages as well. A new study by Sonja Starr, an assistant law professor at the University of Michigan, found that men are sentences 63% higher than women convicted of the same crimes in the federal court. Starr also found that women are twice as likely to avoid confinement and significantly more likely to avoid convictions entirely. Also, when a man gets raped, people complain and ask questions like “Why didn’t you fight back?” or “Why wouldn’t you accept sexual contact?”. Sadly, the man was probably raped by another stronger man, or a group of women who threatened his life. Even if the man did fight back and was successful in beating the woman up, he would have been looked down upon by society because of the infamous phrase “never hit a woman”. He even could be put in jail for fighting the woman, because of the strong sexism in bias among authorities and in the federal court.

I am in full agreement that when a woman gets raped, the man should be persecuted. But the same thing should happen when a man is raped too, regardless of who committed the crime.

The social male social disadvantages don’t just stop there. Remember when someone hacked Jennifer Lawrence’s nudes? Feminists were angry at the hacker, and obviously, they were right in doing so. But when Justin Bieber’s nudes in Bora Bora leaked, feminists sat back and relaxed. It’s obviously not just women who are objectified, men clearly are treated in a similar way.

I hope that feminists who are reading this now realise that there are actually hardships of being a man. Equality, not feminism. Egalitarianism, not just women’s rights. Yes, women do have a lot of hard things to deal with that are worth changing. But the same thing goes for men. So next time, think of all the misconceptions about feminism that you could simply destroy by pushing for equality instead.

Bibliography
Debate.org (2016) Is feminism wrong?. Available at: http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-feminism-wrong (Accessed: 10 March 2016).
McCormack, S. (2012) Study finds huge gap between how long men and women spend in prison. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/men-women-prison-sentence-length-gender-gap_n_1874742.html (Accessed: 10 March 2016).
Modern Woman Digest (2014) DISTURBING NEW FEMINIST TREND: FREE-BLEEDING. Available at: http://modernwomandigest.com/disturbing-new-feminist-trend-free-bleeding/ (Accessed: 3 March 2016).
The Logical Indian (2015) Yes, men get raped too, and mostly suffer in silence. Available at: http://thelogicalindian.com/story-feed/awareness/yes-men-get-raped-too-and-mostly-suffer-in-silence/ (Accessed: 10 March 2016).
Citations, Quotes & Annotations
Debate.org (2016) Is feminism wrong?. Available at: http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-feminism-wrong (Accessed: 10 March 2016).
(Debate.org, 2016)
McCormack, S. (2012) Study finds huge gap between how long men and women spend in prison. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/men-women-prison-sentence-length-gender-gap_n_1874742.html (Accessed: 10 March 2016).
(McCormack, 2012)
Modern Woman Digest (2014) DISTURBING NEW FEMINIST TREND: FREE-BLEEDING. Available at: http://modernwomandigest.com/disturbing-new-feminist-trend-free-bleeding/ (Accessed: 3 March 2016).
(Modern Woman Digest, 2014)
The Logical Indian (2015) Yes, men get raped too, and mostly suffer in silence. Available at: http://thelogicalindian.com/story-feed/awareness/yes-men-get-raped-too-and-mostly-suffer-in-silence/ (Accessed: 10 March 2016).
(The Logical Indian, 2015)