Feminism is not about hating men!

Shrishti, you are such a feminist!!! Why do have so many problems with men???

Many more similar questions have been taking rounds and thrown upon me for quite some time. Though a lot of people consider being a called a feminist a stigma, I proudly embrace the fact that Yes, I am a feminist.

Sometime back I realized that a major chunk of our society has grave misconceptions about the idea of feminism.

This misconception is not new and can be traced back in the early 90s when Pat Robertson, the famous heart throb said, “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”

So let me bust a few myths about feminism and common notions people have which may not always be correct:

1.                    Feminism=man haters:

Wrong Wrong Wrong!!!

If you believe in social equality of the sexes, then you are a feminist.

If you believe suppressing one gender for no apparent reason is wrong, then you are a feminist.

An if you believe that it’s ok in a relationship for the woman to pay the bills, then you definitely are a feminist

In short, you don’t have to hate men to be a feminist. Just because people have been told that feminist hate men for over 200 years... doesn’t make it any true! The concept challenges the system of inequality.

2.                   Feminist is the male equivalent of a male chauvinist:

The fact remains, that feminism does not suppress either of the genders in any way. It propagates equality, not female superiority. That’s it. In fact, it is not only women who are supporters of this idea, but a lot of men too are proud ambassadors of feminism.

The famous and ever charming John legend said, “All men should be feminist. If men care about women's right, world will be a better place... We are better off when women are empowered-it leads to a better society.”

3.                 A woman cannot be feminine and feminist at the same time:

WOW! I would like to meet that intelligent person who germinated this profound statement!

Feminism is all about giving women the right of choice, not limiting self expression.

I love dressing up. I love shopping. I have male friends to hang out with. And I leave no opportunity of expressing myself! As a matter of fact I am a feminist and pretty feminine from every pore.

But the dark side of feminism is that it was and is being misused. Till the time we do not drop the word “Bechari” and stop portraying woman as some “poor little things”, feminist movements will not be of any use. Also, unnecessarily getting the work out of men or demeaning female counterparts in the name of feminism is not justified. This is probably the main reason why feminism attracts so much flack!

Hoping that your misconceptions have been busted, do you still think feminism is bad?