A Primer on Feminism

In a game of Would You Rather, eight out of ten participants would rather be called an equalist than a feminist (2015/18). In a game of Never Have I Ever, men have never had to collectively spend 97 billion hours a year trying to find a safe space to relieve themselves. In a game called life, cishet heterosexual men ironically have a reputation for not wanting women to have a good experience playing it. In most extreme, yet sickeningly common cases, they don’t want women playing at all and take radical steps to ensure their win is secured. The Patriarchy – alternatively known as a white Cambridge dropout – fosters such men. In fact, these men are an army of followers known as the misogynists: men with an invisible cloak of superiority and sulk at the fact their reality is nothing more than a shadow in Plato’s Cave. This paternal bond nurtures sexism as the father assures the son that he is allowed to do anything he wants to win the game for his penis has exempted him from the consequences of rule breaking. Hypocritically, the Patriarchy then goes on to inform his champions that any woman that tries hard to survive this game is bossy, crazy – a witch. Conversely, if she isn’t fighting to win, she’s asking to be defeated - a submissive whore.

Feminism stems from the belief that all people, including those who identify as a woman, man, genderqueer people, or two-spirits, should team up to defeat the master that is playing us like pawns: the Patriarchy. This article was written to strip back the complex cyber arenas that have built around fourth-wave Feminism to remind you of the aim of the game.

Key Words

1. Feminism [Noun]

See also: Feminist, Generic Female Pal [GFP], Anti-Sexism, Human-being-with-awareness-of-basic-human-rights, Virginia Woolf Cult…

Definition: As according to Britannica (2021), Feminism is a political ideology belonging to the Sociology sector due to its radical ‘belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes’. The issue I take with this, nevertheless widely used, definition is that it fails to include the fact Feminism is more than a belief. Feminism is something you ought to conform to if you have a gram of respect for the women in your life. Nor can people be self-proclaimed feminists by simply subscribing to the belief that human beings are equal. Feminism is not an after-thought or post you can add to your Instagram story in two clicks. It is a lifelong commitment to castrating the Patriarchy as it thrives off their own ‘political belief’ that their genitalia are the default, women are the ‘other’. Moreover, I take offense to the consensus that Feminism belongs to politics: an intimidating circle many dare not enter. Political statements are often understood to have an element of controversy to them due to their subjection to opinion. Therefore, it makes mild sense to categorise having common sense and human decency as a political agenda. Although I do understand Feminism has a legacy of making the personal political, it is evident gender disparities are no longer personal. They are universally embedded into a system built broken.

Likewise, I am often confronted by the average not-all-men man with ‘yeah, I believe in equal rights or whatever, but haven’t you already got the right to vote, what more do you want?’. Personally, I think their reasoning derives from their understanding of Feminism as belonging to politics. For those that haven’t been exposed to Feminism beyond the ill-informed history class that paints the Suffragettes out to be the saints of Feminism, it must be confusing to find out they’ve been blinded to the ailing of their female counterparts for a big portion of their life; shocking to find out just because something is normal does not mean it is right. Such pluralistic ignorance has resulted in only 30% of upper-class people calling themselves a feminist despite 82% of them believing in equality (2018).

On that note, I propose a less anachronistic definition: Feminism is the constant fight for women to be recognised as human and treated as such. As basic as these rights may seem, they can only be attained through the collapse of paradigms both within and outside the movement that are counter-productive and exclusive.

2. Patriarchy [Noun]

[Antonym of Matriarchy: A system dominated by women; a society feminists are by no means trying to attend]

See also: Misogynists, Bigotry, Antagonist, Male Chauvinist Pigs, The-smell-of-a-wet- dog…

Definition: As I have already briefly defined the Patriarchy [granted, it was entirely sardonic but legitimate], I’d like to simply attach this definition Women’s Studies International Forum (Volume 77, 2019) has appropriately used: the ‘Patriarchy uses strategies such as legitimation, dissimulation, fragmentation, collectivity and eternalisation to sustain its dominance’ over women.

3. Gender [noun]

[Not to be confused with ‘Sex’, a biological term relating to the anatomical structure of assigned-at-birth Males and Females]

Definition: The World Health Organisation (WHO) correctly define gender as ‘the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed’. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as their relationships with each other’. With that in mind, please note that throughout this article when I use male and female, I’m identifying someone’s birth-assigned sex, not their performative gender. Moreover, when explaining the adversity women face, I am not excluding trans women, gender-queer peoples who are perceived as feminine and men that menstruate.

History and Strands

Falling into the habit of generalisation, the media has crowned itself the king of fuelling misogyny. In context, what is formally known as ‘extremism’ has made an uninvited entrance into feminist dialogue, polluting an otherwise liberating movement. This infusion of toxicity, whilst only smoke and mirrors, has become the Patriarchy’s choice of weapon against Feminism for they manipulate it into the narrative that all feminists are radical. Moreover, it identifies Radicalism as a violent, counter-productive movement, playing ignorance to the fact radicals are to credit for the revolutionary waves of Feminism. Feminist waves are only fully formed with Radicalism. To extend this metaphor, Liberalism has aided in the formation of these waves, but their lack of force has hindered the transformation. These waves pitch themselves throughout history as sporadic bursts of energy and enlightenment, hence the fact there have only been four waves in this vast sea. Consequently, there is little consensus on who was the face of these waves. With that in mind, consider the next section of this essay a loose interpretation of history influenced by personal experience with the addressed agendas.

The late nineteenth, early twentieth century is characterised by urban industries and left-wing politics – the optimum conditions for Feminism to thrive. Please note that Feminism was alive long before then. However, it manifested itself into marginalised communities that didn’t have a platform of privilege to stand on, hence why the Suffragettes are a largely white force of deception. Personally, I object to the Suffragettes being praised for the feminist uprising as they excluded black, indigenous women of colour (BIWOC) from their circle. Subsequently, it was not until the late 1960s black women were rewarded a basic voting right . Essentially, the 1776 American feminist revolution was made up of white supremacists in leftist costumes. What was intended to liberate women further silenced the marginalised; the Suffragettes used BIWOC as stools in climbing the hierarchy. In summary, the first wave washed ashore centuries of sexism in a problematic manner. It brought to light what was always there. It signalled institutional change, enabling the rise in employment for white British women from 26% (1951) to 49% (1970). The first wave was 80 years of fighting for property rights, establishment of women’s colleges and the 19th amendment…for white women. It was entirely radical in its notion but arguably not radical enough. At the time, the suffrage was looked down at with mocking smiles and ignorant tsking yet today it characterises almost every feminist discussion I enter. The point I’m trying to make is: The size of the problem dictates the size of the solution and Radicalism evidently has a streak of getting what it wants, so why discourage it in a contemporary setting when you’ve seen the effects it has had on our present?

The Patriarchy is that one lipstick that’s ever so pigmented to the point that, no matter how much you try to remove it, it stains your lips. Liberalism voices their frustration about the stain from their armchair as they continue to put more on. Reformism covers the stain with a different expired product. Radicalism throws away the makeup and replaces it with a sustainable item thats quality reflects its value.

The second wave came at due course in the 1960s-90s. The wave formed in response to the war and civil rights movements. Relevantly, this was the wave where intersectionality was introduced. The second wave sought to accommodate other diversities with a cocktail of neo-Marxism and psycho-analytical theory. Normative heterosexuality was challenged when examining sexual and reproductive rights. The domestic division of labour was called into question as themes of triple burdens and minimal paternity leave exhausted women around the world. Passing the Equal Rights Amendment was paramount in the second wave’s agenda. Such a task required an army of unified sisters; it required intersectionality. The first wave’s propelling of ‘middle class, Western, cisgender, white women’ wiped out any possibility of solidarity, hence the second wave’s efforts to become intersectional.

It has been 40 years since the second wave and intersectional Feminism is still spoken about in hushed tones. With a 2018 study confirming that Asian women earn 84.5% of a man’s earning, black women 63.3% and Latina 54.4%, it is evident the second wave was rejected due to its coloured front. As Paul Murray says, there is ‘double jeopardy facing black women’ and yet a swathe of BIWOC are still caged by their own sex, nonetheless. Kimberle Crenshaw confirms that intersectionality is salient in Feminism because it ‘offers a way of mediating the tensions between assertions of multiple identity and the ongoing necessity of group politics’

In the second wave’s defence, they did achieve the 1967 Abortion Act and, although this did not make access to abortion automatic, it still progressed to recognise female body’s as independent. In addition, the 1969 Divorce Reform Act, Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act were passed. The Patriarchy may not have been subverted, but that is why another uprising came at due course.

Thus came the third wave in the mid-90s. Pinkfloor summarised it as the cementation of the notion that women can ‘have a push-up bra and a brain at the same time’. In came the policing of language which deprived misogynists of their verbal weapons. Derogatory terms were re-invented to enforce empowerment. Overall, gender boundaries were crossed, and day-to-day incidences of overt and covert sexism were challenged.

We are now living in the fourth wave, pushing it to completion on cyberspaces. The radical idea that women can be rational human beings is beginning to be acknowledged in higher education, business, and politics. Contrary to popular belief, fourth wave feminists are not just ‘reincarnations of their second wave grandmothers’. What it means to be a feminist is not what it meant back then. Whether it will be subjected to mutation again is unknown, but internet Feminism undoubtedly has a lot of work to do – reading this blog is where it starts.

---

Bibliography:

1. YouGov Survey (2018), YouGov Survey (2015). Feminism v Equality. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47006912 (Accessed 04/11/2021)

2. CRIADO-PEREZ, C. (2019). Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. Chatto and Windus: London.

3. Burkett, Elinor and Brunell, Laura. "feminism". Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Aug. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism. (Accessed 26/10/2021)

4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/patriarchy (Accessed 26/10/2021)

5. https://www.who.int/health-topics/gender#tab=tab_1 (Accessed 26/10/2021)

6. Morris, J. Bonnie & Withers, D. M. (2018) The Feminist Revolution: The Struggle for Women’s Liberation. Smithsonain Books: Washington.

7. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47006912 (Accessed 01/11/2021)