Why Feminism Needs a Name Change | Teen Ink

Why Feminism Needs a Name Change

May 18, 2018
By Noah_muhlhausen SILVER, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
Noah_muhlhausen SILVER, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
7 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
If it won't get better don't make it worse


When I was little, my mother and I watched a lot of shows together. One show, in particular, was called Futurama. During one of the episodes, they had all the female characters join a group called the feministas. While I was watching, I realized there were no male characters in their group and I wondered why. After a while, I came to the conclusion that “Hey, maybe it’s because the name is feminista.” which is what brought me to this point. I believe that we need to change the name of feminism to something that’s more inclusive. After changing the name, feminism will have a better reputation, people who do not support feminism might develop a better opinion, and when talking about it in conversation a person would not be judged as harshly due to the reputation feminism as received.
   

Before I begin I must define the feminism. The definition of feminism is “the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.” Now knowing this I feel as if anyone can tell what feminism is for and what it’s not. If people can’t tell feminism is about equality. If feminism is about equality, why do they not include anything to deal with men because men are still part of the situation.


To make feminism have a better reputation I think we should change the name of feminism to something like equalism which doesn’t sound like it discriminates any gender. The reason I think the word feminism is discriminating against men is that if something people believed stands for equal rights I need to know that just by hearing the name. When I hear the word feminism, it sounds more like something only women can get behind and I feel as if I will never really be accepted into the feminism community which does not feel good at all. This is why we need to change feminism to equalism to help its reputation.


The next reason to change the name is to help the people who do not like feminism and give them a better opinion. On the website Forbes, under an article titled, What is feminism and why do so many men and women hate it, it states,“I believe there are five critical reasons behind this. feminism has been associated with strong, forceful and angry women, and our society continues to punish forceful women.” I completely agree with the article. When people are too aggressive to the other people who do not a agree with them they get could get mad. Another reason is that of the videos that go viral showing people who use feminism to defend their ridiculous actions. For example, there was a video of a girl being questioned by the police rambling and tried to defend herself from nothing and looked like a complete idiot. This video and many others have driven a wedge between men and women. Men don’t want to join to due to toxic masculinity and some women who support feminism act too angry and forceful which, like I  said, causes a divide between everyone.

 

When someone is talking about feminism people may automatically think about the girl in the video which to be fair is very memorable but feminists are much more. Sure some may be intimidating but that does not mean everyone is like that. On YouTube, there is a woman named Lilly Singh who is an open feminist, who on occasion will make a video on the topic. If people were to see how she acted then I think feminism would have a better reputation.

 

In conclusion, we need to change the name of feminism to help feminism gain a better reputation, change the people's minds who do not support feminism, and when talking about it in a conversation the people who believe in feminism won't be as judged. I know this something that may never happen but anything can happen in the Futurama. Get it, like future,  but I said Futurama.



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