“We don’t need to be feminist in my generation.” They’re the words of Carla Bruni – the wife of former French president Nicolas Sarkosy. In an interview with Vogue this month, she described herself as “not at all an active feminist.”
“There are pioneers who paved the way for us. I am not a feminist activist at all. On the contrary I am a true bourgeoise. I love family life and doing the same thing every day,” Bruni said.
It’s an interesting sentiment – cough – coming from a woman whose fame and fortune has been derived from the way she looks and the man she married. This is said without rancour. It’s simply an observation.
So no need for feminism, Carla? Respectfully, we disagree. And apparently so do many of the women in France who took to social media expressing their need for feminism with the hashtag #ChereCarlaBruni (Dear Carla Bruni).
And THIS is why:
I need feminism because...
(To see more of this gallery visit the Who Needs Feminism Tumblr)
Mamamia’s Managing Editor Jamila Rizvi wrote earlier this year about why she needs feminism in response to another high profile woman declaring herself a non-feminist. She wrote:
Jamila Rizvi, feminist.
Women still earn around 80 cents for every dollar that men earn over a lifetime. And this isn’t just about who has the bits that make the babies. Australian women earn less from the very first year after they graduate from university and TAFE.
Women still carry the burden of around two thirds of unpaid work and caring duties.
Women are almost 51 per cent of the population and yet we hold less than 30 per cent of elected positions in the federal Parliament. We hold 8 per cent of board directorships and 10 per cent of executive management positions.
Nearly one in five of us will experience sexual assault, one in three will experience some kind of family or domestic violence in our lifetimes.
We earn less, we are heard less and we are hurt more.
And all of this pales in comparison, to the women around the world who still do not share the basic rights, safety, freedoms and equalities that here in Australia we all take for granted.
Nicolas and Carla
To every woman still reading my rant, I say this: Yes, you are a feminist. All that little word means is that you believe in women’s equality with men. It’s not scary, it’s simple.
So let’s stop wasting our time ‘reclaiming’ words like c*#t and start reclaiming a word that really matters.
And let’s start doing that today.
Feminism is ours. It is an ideal, a thought, a vision that was designed by our mothers and our grandmothers and our great grandmothers, but it is still relevant today. It isn’t something we should take for granted and it isn’t something we should forget.
Let’s not let feminism become a dirty word on our watch.
Let’s give our daughters and grand daughters something to be proud of too.
So over to you…. Why do you need feminism?
71 Comments so far
I still need feminism because …
I have clients wary of engaging me because I might get married and not want to work any more (which they have never asked male colleagues about)
I know someone who was asked in an interview when she intended to give her ovaries a run
I want my children, the next generation, and even my generation to continue to question whether we have reached equality, so that even if and when we have, we are consious of maintaining it
Even when I have a law degree, I am often asked if I am by boss’s secretary (which male colleauges are NEVER asked)
I still have to justify to someone at the hardware store that I know what I’m doing
Women are still referred to as a “minority group” when we are half the population
People still ask me “what will you do if you don’t find a husband”?
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I need feminism to counteract tv shows like The Shire, Being Lara Bingle, My Bedazzled Life and Big Fat Gypsy weddings.
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Carla’s comments are ignorant and vapid from a priviledged wealthy, educated woman living in a secular democratic country. She should be ashamed of herself.
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Sooo…I posted this before, but apparently it didn’t work. I found this on tumblr recently – I think it’s great, but I hope it will at least put some others into thinking mode…
“’I’m a guy, and I need feminism. Not “men’s rights.” Feminism. Here is why.
Everything that MRAs talk about that men can’t do or are socially punished for arise directly and immediately from misogyny. Not “misandry.” Misogyny.
Whether I am expressing my emotions, playing with children, baking, having sex wherein I am penetrated in any way, wearing the wrong color, talking the wrong way, moving the wrong way, being sexually harassed/assaulted, or paying too little attention to looking like I’m not paying attention to how I look, when society punishes me or derides me or marginalizes me for these things, it is happening because they are things women, not men, are expected to do, and our society at large hates women.
Has that sunk in yet?
Men, can you even think of a single goddamn way you have ever been mocked that wasn’t related to something that a misogynist society sees as feminizing? Even when large men are mocked for their bodies, they are referred to as having “man-boobs,” ffs.”
I never thought of it that way before, so interesting
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If you had heard anything from Carla Bruni’s pathetic attempt at making music with that record she released, her comment would be unsurprising. she lacks imagination and insight, she is clearly a vapid idiot. there, said it.
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I first got into feminist theory when I was about 14, reading Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sexe’. I became involved in activism fairly shortly after until my early 20s. I’ve been the recipients of the gifts of feminism in the Western world: I have am successful in my career, I have a husband who takes on the bulk of the childcare and household responsibilities so that I can continue to work in my role (it involves travel for 6 week stints for about one third of the year in total), I am politically active and I enjoyed a great education. A good part of that – apart from my own hard work – was down to inheriting certain rights and opportunities that came about as a result of the early feminist movement.
Having said that, I also think that the key to true equality is in exactly that – equality. Men are often disadvantaged by the courts in custody arrangements (much less so now but certainly before recently custody decisions were heavily weighted in favour of women), men often can’t access the same period of parental leave as women (obviously they can the government entitlements but not so much in the private sector), men face discrimination of the basis of their gender in everyday life when it comes to children (being asked to move seats on a plane, for example).
If women want true equality, these need to be addressed. Until society accepts that parenting is a man’s role as much as a woman’s, the bulk of child rearing will often be left to women, even if not through an active choice they have made. If women want to stop the gender/age based employment discrimination that occurs when applying for jobs when in their late 20s/early 30s, we need to have a culture where a man of the same age is just as likely to access parental leave. When more feminists start vocally calling for these changes, they will be accepted with more credibility.
It would certainly be a good start for some women to stop judging the choices of other women who return to work. Or for women to assume that all women are hardwired for motherhood, ignoring the fact that, in some relationships (like my own) the man is more than capable of getting the kids off to school, cooking dinner, organising presents for birthdays, attending the P&C meetings and taking the kids to Saturday activities…and I’m not at all ashamed to say that he does it infinitely better than I could myself!
Finally, we need to recognise the role that some women play in the oppression of others. Of course, there are those examples like online and school yard bullying of girls (all too often done by other girls) and the female executive who installs a glass ceiling after she’s made it up the ladder. There are also other, equally or more serious examples, like the practice of FGM which, in many cultures, in perpetrated primarily by women upon women. Or female complicity in the so-called honour killings – where mothers have taken part in the murder of their own daughters. Perhaps I’m being a little ethnocentric but if one accepts that these are wrong, one accepts that they are wrong regardless of whether the perpetrators are men or women. Too often I hear men being condemned for FGM – sometimes they aren’t even aware that it has happened to their daughters!
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This comment is brilliant. I wish I could like it 1000 times.
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Hurrah to you! XD
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FaybianI love your comment in general, but do take issue with the FGM point. Yes, I think it’s vile that primarily women do it to their daughters, nieces etc, but the fear is that if they aren’t mutilated like that they will not be desirable as wives and in and in a patriarchal society, marriage Is high on the list of priorities for girls. Similar with the honour killings. Would these things happen if the society they lived in was not so patriarchal?
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If Feminism were about gender parity feminist lobby groups would not have pushed to repeal the 2006 family law amendments that saw consideration of equal care for children in cases were there was no family violence.
Feminism is not a magic bullet against poverty, paedophilia, bad manners, ignorance or bullying.
Feminism is about female power at the expense of others which is why I call myself an egalitarian.
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Wow. it’s really not.
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IT may not be, but it’s viewed that way.
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I need feminism for my daughters, because the 2 of them who have online presences have both been bullied and teenage females are apparently 3 times more likely than boys to be bullied. I will admit that there’s probably a fair proportion that are other girls doing the bullying and we need to learn as a gender to stop that crap. The younger who has only very recently gone online has already had a sleaze approach her.
I agree with Kelly below, we need to lead by example.
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i need feminism… because without it i wouldn’t realize that its ok not to care about making men like me… its ok not to devote my life to anyone other than myself…. it’s ok to behave the way i deem appropriate. Feminism to me doesnt mean not staying at home and living a family life…. it means having the choice to do that or something else… for myself! This lady’s concept of feminism makes me a little unhappy… being a family oriented person, stay at home mum, wife, or taking on traditional roles doesnt make you not a feminist… i appreciate the choices i freely have as a woman and to me thats what feminism means!
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I don’t need to be feminist. Actually the only time I’ve experienced inequality was in my last job when the managers (one male, one female) refused to hire a male for an admin role at our work because “it was a woman’s job”. My dad stayed home with my sister and I while my mum went back to work (this was in then 80′s) I have climed higher and been paid more than my male colleagues because I work hard and deserved it. My husband picks up our son every day from school and does the homework and 80% of the cooking and cleaning at home and most of my girlfiends have very similar experiences as me. What annoys me is that how people think its ok to call men who are active in the home, house bit#hes, whiped and the like and think its hilarious, but you can never (jokinly of course) call a woman those things? (this is something I personally experience, so I don’t think this about everyone) I know there are lot of women – too many out there, esp in certain countries that experience inequality and some to the extreme, and I feel passionatly about how they are treated, but it’s unfair to expect all females to be “feminist” when they have no need to be. I believe you can support things that you believe in like the treatment of woman in certain countries without being a “feminist”.
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Do you think your Mum or you could have done what you did/do without feminism?
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Why do you think it was that the managers didn’t want a man to do “a woman’s job”? Perhaps because admin work is usually at low pay, therefore it is not suitable for a man? Perhaps because admin roles are generally considered the bottom of the corporate rung, therefore not suitable for a man? (Note – I do not agree with these statements, I think that plenty of admin roles, particularly reception, are under-valued and under-paid, however I’ve yet to work for a boss that agrees with me).
Did you ever consider that the reason that your husband is called a house b*tch is because equality, the goal of feminism, has not yet been achieved? That the reason stay at home fathers are demeaned is beacuse it is seen as a woman’s job – which inherently means that going to paid work is NOT a mother’s job?
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I need feminism because no other 12 year old deserves to be treated as a sex toy for a group of old men.
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I read this article and viewed the slideshow while waiting to be served in a store in regional Bangladesh. Of 13 people in the store, i was the only female. There are very few foreigners in this country, limited access to television and internet and so very few examples of feminism are available to suppressed women here. Women whose sole purpose is to bear and raise children don’t know that feminism exists. They don’t know that there is any other way of life. It’s not acceptable for women to walk alone on the streets, wear what they want or socialise with men that they’re not related to. Not many families even permit their girls or wives to work. When i am seen with a male colleague or friend, i must pretend that he is my husband or brother. So, i need feminism because, while we’re still not quite there in the west, equality is something that all women deserve, if they seek it, no matter their religion. We can only lead by example, but do that we must.
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Did you know Australian women are still being forced to marry their cousins. IT’s happening.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/03/29/3466537.htm
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Some of the photo’s call for feminism when they should be calling for the police, a better choice of room-mate or just plain good manners from those around them. That is not what feminism is about.
Feminism is still alive and required because of the stupidity of some men (see the recent tweet by David Campese regarding the new SMH Rugby correspondent who is a “girl”), institutions and the like are not aligned with 2012.
Regrettably, feminism in Australia will not save the child brides of the world, child prostitutes (male or female) or the like. Unfortunately that is in the hands of politicians or those willing to travel out of Australia and do something about it. Mama Mia is a great starting point but hardly at the coal face of these issues.
On the flip side, maybe some things – like the toilet seat being up – should just be ignored and you girls get on with it, even if it is a little inconvenient.
V
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See, I’d put the Campo tweet in the same boat as the toilet seat up or down. Too much focus on the wrong thing.
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I hate to tell you, but women can be stupid and sexist as well, and often are.
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Some of the photo’s call for feminism when they should be calling for the police, a better choice of room-mate or just plain good manners from those around them. That is not what feminism is about.
Feminism is still alive and required because of the stupidity of some men (see the recent tweet by David Campese regarding the new SMH Rugby correspondent who is a “girl”), institutions and the like are not aligned with 2012.
On the flip side, maybe some things – like the toilet seat being up – should just be ignored and you girls get on with it, even if it is a little inconvenient.
V
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its not just the stupidity of men but the stupidity of women also…. I dont need feminism? has she no idea what feminism has done to her life?
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Get a grip people!
Feminism is not about ‘playing victim’.
Traditionally, the world, the status quo, the powers that be, favour men in power. That’s not saying men are bad. It’s saying ‘well, where are the women’?
I urge everyone – men and women – to read Caitlin Moran’s book, ‘How to be a woman’. Real and funny and insightful.
It is easy for women of privilege like Carla Bruni to think everyone leads the relatively comfortable life with abundant opportunity that is her reality. The fact that she mentions ‘staying at home’ as her reason for not needing or supporting feminism gives away her ignorance on the topic. (Dear Carla, feminism GIVES you the choice to BE a stay-at-home mom.)
Please don’t confuse feminism with man-bashing. It’s not.
Men’s rights and men’s issues e.g. increasing prevalence of mental illness (depression and anxiety) among men certainly deserves attention.
Let the genders SUPPORT each other and strive for MUTUAL RESPECT, whether in the boardroom, bedroom or living room.
With shared goals of fairness, kindness, tolerance, and humanity, we’re on the same side.
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Yes, it’s a bit “Let them eat cake” really, isn’t it?
I actually wonder at the women who say “I’m not a feminist, but I believe in equality”. Is it trying to appear less threatening than their idea of “feminist”? Are they scared guys won’t like them for not wanting to be treated like shit for being female?
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sorry, I fail to get the whole ‘lets support eachother and call it feminism’ bit.
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It’s called common sense. A concept as misunderstood as feminism.
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Women don’t earn as much because they don’t do the same types of jobs.
Women shy away from the hard, physical and dangerous jobs that men do.
Until women are equally represented in the jobs that kill and maim, then you don’t deserve to get paid the same.
If women are under represented in parliament, then you only have yourselves to blame. Vote for the female candidate and you’ll have a house full of MP’s.
What women always forget to mention is that they live longer than men in all socio economic groups. Do you know why? I doubt it, because you don’t want to hear the truth. It’s simple, men die younger because we work harder in much more physically demanding jobs in hazardous situations.
I’m 48, and I’ve never known an instance where a woman was paid less than her male counterpart when they do the same jobs. I’ve asked my female workmates about this, and without exception, they state the same thing as me. Yet when women complain about not getting paid enough, I will advise them how to get into a male dominated industry where the pay is extremely good, but once again, without exception, they fail to heed that advice, and continue in the physically easy occupations that pay less.
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I’m pretty sure being a CEO isn’t dangerous and labour intensive, unless you are the CEO of Apple and you don’t relese an iPhone at a promised time…
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Women live longer because they take care of their health much more than men do. They are more proactive in seeking medical attention when they are ill, and are far more likely to have regular checkups. Also, because women are childbearers, they generally, though not always, spend nine months at least for each child being as healthy as they can (no drinking, smoking, eating unhealthy foods, engaging in dangerous / risky behaviours) and being in contact with health services that pick up physical and psychological problems. That counts for a lot.
It has very little to do with the ‘fact’ that all women are secretaries and all men are down the mines.
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…and men earn more because they are simply better at business. I mean, seriously, you cant have it one way and not the other. When women have a poor outcome, it is because they are victims, when men do, it is their fault. pffft.
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Men are simply ‘better at business’?
You have GOT to be joking.
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I was merely trying to show how sexist the previous comments on mens health were.
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I suggest you go and have a look at the cause of death statistics, and not just the stats that list causes as heart disease and cancer.
Look at the cause of the heart disease, the cause of cancer (asbestos related cancers for instance are way over represented by men) Or just look at the number of women killed and maimed at work compared to men.
I suggest you try being a concretor or a steel fixer, bending all day in the sun for 8 to 10 hours. See how your body is at the end of 20 years when you still have 25 years of work to go.
Don’t give me that rubbish about getting medical checks either. I had a bloke have a myocardial infarct at work only 6 days after getting the all clear from his doctor. He was a 54 year old concretor and he died.
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Anon, did you know this happened THIS YEAR… in the UK…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-20054049
Same job. Unequal pay.
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I live in Victoria, so what happens to relative pay rates in the UK really doesn’t worry me in the least.
Here’s one for you.
Men killed in workplace accidents in Victoria in 2012 – 14
Women Killed in workplace accidents in Victoria in 2012 – 0
Wany equal pay? Expose yourselves to the same dangers as men at work and you’ll have a case.
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Christ I didn’t realize accountants were in so much more danger than nurses!
(Traditionally male traditionally female; not saying men can’t be nurses women can’t be accountants)
Men are paid more because way back when men set the pay levels and apparently it’s quite different to change the ingrained “value” of a job.
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I’ll swap my job as a nurse, which at times can be dangerous (not often, but it happens) because of our patients and definitely messy and somewhat unpleasantly so for your job in the mines and we can compare notes then. Ok? For the record nursing isn’t as well paid as mines work because it has traditionally been seen as women’s work and undervalued accordingly.
Maybe you could teach or work in child care too. They would love to have men in those occupations because there are never enough.
As zepgirl said below, women tend to look after themselves better during their life. It’s not all about occupations. A part of the responsibility with injuries at work also lies with the fact that people don’t follow workplace safety protocols properly.
As for the claim that men are better at business, witness the GFC. Stop trying to get a sneaky dig in at the PM.
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I think you have missed the point – traditional female jobs such as nursing, teaching, child care are all jobs with severe pay inbalances when compared to traditional male jobs such as running a bank.
I am a feminist and so if my male partner. I proudly recognise the life choices i have and thank my fore mothers for fighting for those choices. Feminism is about equality and informed choice.
Its awesome that carla brunei states she is more of a traditional women, however she fails to realise that without feminism her life choices wouldnt have been a choice, and instead an expectation of how she should live. She has the choice to be what she wants – which millions of women still do not.
That is why feminism is so important.
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O. M. G.
Do you even know how hard it is to be a woman in a “man’s” job?? Do you know how much extra sexual harrassment “lady tradies” get subject to? Do you know how dismissive people are of us? Do you know how much harder we have to fight for respect?
It might seem insignificant (and it was probably an overreaction), but yesterday, I was at church, and I was carrying a drill for one reason or another. I got so many comments like “Look out!”, “That’s dangerous” (not a warning, a mocking “lady with a power tool” type thing). Eventually, I just blew up. I lost it. Because that is the sort of thing I encounter every day, and it’s stupid.
I do not have the same level of skill as my husband – he’s a tradesman with 20 years experience. I’m an apprentice. (there’s a 12 year age gap, and I’m a “mature age apprentice” at 25). And I generally can’t lift the same amount he can (because he is 6’4″ and weighs 120kg, and I am 5’9″ and weigh 85kg). But I am still very competent, and I’m learning my trade fast.
(the irony is, at church I was actually carrying my husband’s drill, which is an 18v Hitachi Slide Brushless – iPhone 5 of the drill world. Mine is an older 18v Hitachi cassette. But the men making the stupid comments would not know the difference. They’re weekend warriors who probably have a Ryobi or a Dewalt shoved in their shed somewhere.)
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There are a lot of guys on here today lecturing us about there being no need for feminism …. Some of the comments make it clear that people don’t really grasp what feminism is. First off I hate when people call themselves a humanist not a feminist without realizing that feminism came out of humanist thinking. I think the difference is important to note because there are many people who talk about equal rights for all humans but what they are really talking about is the rights of men and have a lovely way of trying to just explain away social , political and economic issues facing women specifically
as just some cultural phenomenon that we can do nothing about.
Sure the media has a tendency to play up silly issues and conflict while ignoring ones of far greater importance but the media are not the great guardians of feminism and expecting them to be will only lead to disappointment. I, like most people, have my own views on feminism, gender and men’s issues. Some of them are represented in the media, some are not, some are barely mentioned at all. That does not mean I am going to abandon the whole movement just because a few media outlets want to make money for their advertisers by using click bait.
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Agree, seems that the majority of today`s feminist are just professional victims and the unity of the sisterhood no longer applies. The previous generations would be sad to know how many now embrace this type of faux feminism.
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Question: how does that make feminism itself less relevant or less important?
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I agree with her and don’t consider myself to be an active feminist. Of course I believe in equal rights but unfortunately feminism doesn’t seem to be defined by equal rights any more. I get the impression that in order to be an active feminist you have to play the victim, constantly complain over every single thing that is done to women even if has no relevance to their gender. I have no interest in that kind of feminism.
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I’m proudly a feminist, and I hate the victim feminism you’re talking about. But that’s just one type of person who does that. I have no problem with calling people out on their behaviour (as Julia Gillard so stunningly did), but things like that silly article about David Campese complaining on twitter about a female sports journo was a great example of silly feminism. “Talk about how [she's] so hot and Usain Bolt was keen, but pweeaase take me sewiously!!”?? Nah.
Or those ridiculous posts about “I like cooking and sewing: am I a bad feminist??” Well, no. But you are annoying me with you silly questions. If you want to know about feminism, go and find out.
Hate to break it to you though (not really) but expecting equal treatment and not to be disadvantaged because you’re a girl IS feminism.
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No. Feminism is about equality. I understand what you’re getting at though. But feminism is ALL about equality. Do you have a vagina? Would you like to make your own decisions for it? Then you’re a feminist. Plain and simple. Carla Brunei needs her head looked at
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yep, a gender specific term is all about equality, sure.
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Yes, it is brave anonymous, because one gender has traditionally had less rights than the other and still does in many parts of the world.
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This is like complaining that there’s no ‘movement’ supporting the plight of white straight men. Of course their problems and needs are extremely important (and, arguably, get much less attention than they should), but there is certainly, and rightly, a focus on women (or any other minority or non-privileged group) because they always have been, and still are, not equal.
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I need feminism — because my denomination still won’t ordain women,
— because I am still afraid to eat alone in public because of so many experiences of harassment when I was young
— because so many people still don’t ‘get’ domestic violence, and think it can be dealt with by the woman changing her behaviour
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Ah yes, feminism, the right to have an opinion, as long as it is the ‘correct’ opinion sprouted by the feminist world order hey guys.
Why on earth cant some women state an opinion that they are now more about humanism and equality and justice for all (men and women, rather than identifying with a movement that by its very nature can only ackowledge issues on one side of the gender divide), without being kicked to the moon for even daring to hold that view.
Newsflash, some women in the western world have a different view to you guys, and good on them I say, feminism often just divides us.
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Thank you!
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1000000% agree!
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Although this isn’t going to make me popular, I agree with her.
Feminism has helped pave the way for the rights of women however now I feel that many women are just using this as a cry for every indecent act done to women today. I am well aware that the world is not perfect, that in some countries, even Australia, that there are still forces against the rights of women, however I think we should now be focusing on the equality of both women AND men.
I know that most people won’t agree with me, but isn’t the focus of feminism is for each woman to have a choice, and so for me, not having a belief in feminism in contemporary society is a choice of mine and I will respect the beliefs of others on here too.
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You’re aware that wanting men and women to be considered equals IS feminism,right?
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no, equalism and humanism is that, feminism only considers issues relating to women. How can that ever equate to equality?
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sorry I should have clarified what I meant by equality for women and men
previously women were treated as second class citizens, however through the growth of feminism, this gap between men and women was lessened. So what I mean by that statement is that today there has been a growth in rights of females, and there is less need to emphasis the rights solely of women but instead we focus on men and women as one group, I think we have the ability to increase equality rather that defining the sexes as two identities
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What rights do men need that women have that guys don’t?
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pretty easy to real off a ton without even thinking – work family flexibility, health care, family court outcomes, sentencing, workplace safety, suicide, mental health, homelessness, god, is it that hard.
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Anonymous, I think you missed the point there… Kris2040 asked what RIGHTS women have that men don’t – not what issues.
And I laugh if you believe all women have work family flexibility – so would my mother and all my aunties.
Also all the above issues you raised affect women too – the difference in many cases is that women are generally (not ALWAYS) more proactive in seeking help. Feminism is about seeking equality for all men and women in the eyes of the law and society.
In this case, homelessness, health care and mental health are issues that both men and women experience, but it’s up to them and those who love them to seek help. They aren’t directly related (although can be, of course) feminism in this argument.
I do agree with the issues of family law, they are changing though – trust me, I studied law at uni, I know they’re changing.
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So you’re exercising your feminist right to an opinion then?
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I’d say that would be her democratic right to an opinion, rather than her feminist right. But I guess it is all subjective and neither of us are right or wrong in the scheme of things
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I can’t believe I’m reading some of this! So, just because women are allowed to vote in the west means that sweet, we’re done! No need to think about feminism is any more, right?! Wrong! We in the west need to lead the way in humanism, which means equal rights for EVERYONE! Google the following: dowry deaths in India, women in public in Saudi Arabia, public stoning in Afghanistan, female infanticide in China, child brides in Kenya, women with fiscures in Ethiopia and gender-based violence in indiginous Australia. These are all issues of humanism but all atrocious examples of gender-based abuse that it’s inhumane for us to ignore. So is feminism humanism? Yes, because as these examples demonstrate, men are the dominant sex worldwide. We in the west have come a long way, but to set an example in the international arena, we need to continue to believe in feminism.
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I need feminism because I’m raising two teenage sons.
My boys are growing up in a world where women singers hump the floor and call it empowerment, where the commodification of women’s bodies is an ipad tap away and where our Prime Minister is ridiculed because of her shoes.
I work in world (high school) where Snooki is an aspirational role model, where girls cover their folders in images of Miranda Kerr and 13 year olds get highlights and multiple piercings.
I live in a world that forces 13 year olds to get married, where girls are labouring in factories and quarries at age 8 and girl babies are murdered.
And Carla Bruni says she doesn’t need feminism.
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a lot of the exploitation you describe (except the last example) sprouted from feminism and the sexual revolution and feminism perpetuates it by each woman’s ‘right’ to choose to be exploited. The constant pro-prostitution articles on this feminist website are evidence of this attitude..
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You know what, in many of those countries where girls are forced to marry, boys are sent to war with a machine gun in their hand at 12 years old and die for their trouble. Boys too are forced into labour as children, and often much more intese and dangerous labour.
And herein lies the problem with feminism, it states to the world, loud and clear, that only females can possibly be victims, and states that the issues faced by women and girls are just much more important than those faced by boys.
No wonder we get to the point we are at now, where the media finds much greater sadness in the drowning of women on asylum seeker boats than men. Quite simply, feminism makes the world believe that the life, problems and issues of women are infinately more important than those of males. And that is crap.
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I could not have said it better. I think Feminism does place women on a higher rung then men. I think we should all just be equal. For every sexual assault, a young man is assaulted in some senseless act of violence. Society needs to look at the issues relating to humanity, not just one gender.
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Andrea feminism is for those who believe in equality. Your statement ‘I think we should all just be equal’ makes you by definition* a feminist. It’s this ill conceived notion of feminism that frustrates me.
*Oxford English Dictionary- the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.
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amen sister.
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