I’ve been graciously given various titles throughout my present lifetime from Miss India Washington back in 2014, a representative for cultural and collegiate organizations, and the title which I created for the world of American Born Proud Desi’s/Indians: ABPD.

These titles all have their own meaning and definitive purpose as to what I felt I needed to do for the people around me, but it wasn’t until just the other day that I was granted yet another title.

A Feminist.

Now, this term has been thrown rather carelessly in society. I know that I hear both genders alike using the term in their own meaning, but I never took mind to it. Partially because I had clouded conception of what it means myself.

But after being called a feminist; I paused and thought to myself for a second that there shouldn’t be a reason why this word should sound derogatory. Why does being a “feminist” sound so wrong and why and when did it become something to be ridiculed?

The definition of a feminist is someone who believes in social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. If you are someone who stands to fight for this, no matter what gender – male or female or unknown… the  fathers, brothers,  sons,  mothers, sisters,  daughters, etc. are constantly fighting for their loved ones equality and rights so then yes, you could potentially be considered a feminist. It’s not just the females fighting for equality and justice of social norms in society, but men too. If you are someone who stands to fight for equality of human beings rights, then you are someone who believes in social, political, and economic equality justice.

“Feminism is the fight towards gender equality.”

A common misperception of feminism is that it the conception that women are better than men; men have always been considered the superior being hence why the evolution of feminism came to be. So in essence, it’s the battle between the sexes. This is cannot be further from the truth. There shouldn’t be one superior gender being and a “true feminist” will tell it to you straight.

It is the “gender feminists” cling onto an ideologically driven, theoretically unsound, and empirically unsupported perspective of the origin and development of sex differences. (Kuhle, 2012) They too are giving feminism/feminist a bad name by discouraging women and men who support sexual equality from identifying themselves as feminist. It’s the gender feminists statistical view of evolution that hinders the search for and understanding of the proximate and ultimate causes of inequality.

“Gender equality is not a womens issue, it is a human issue, and it affects us all.”

All feminists want is equality — “equity feminists” is what it’s called I believe. The equal chance at opportunities that the opposite sex may have leverage. They want equal pay, the chance for their voices to be heard, to be a leader, to walk alone and feel safe. They want the discrimination against women to end. Equity feminism has no a priori stance on the origin or existence of differences between the sexes; it is solely a sociopolitical desire for men’s and women’s legal and social equality.

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Just to  quickly recap: as a blogger/journalist, as a person who hold various titles, as a person who speaks up for herself in causes she believes in and acts I stand against – I am deemed feminist. Just to be clear, I, like various other human individuals living a life in this world hears and see things which need to be stopped – if people see that as an attack, then what in the world constitutes misogyny? Is there really any wonder why the overwhelming population want nothing to do with the feminist label? Why 1 out of 5 people consider calling someone a feminist an insult.

As Emma Watson has said, “it is time that we see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals. We should stop defining each other by what we are not, and start defining ourselves as who we are.”

Feminism shouldn’t be seen as a dirty word. Being a feminist shouldn’t be seen as a insult, and the fact that it is proves how illiterate and how close-minded individuals can be. To save feminism from the wrongful ideological perspective gender feminists feed, I encourage everyone who hold that women should have a the same chance at social, political, and economic rights as men to wholeheartedly and proudly identify themselves as equity feminists (if the sole term “feminist” scares you).

 

So, to the person who called me a feminist: yes, I am a feminist…an equity feminist, and I will fight for ALL GENDERS to have an equal and fair opportunity at what life has to offer them.