What is Feminism?

When you search the term feminism on the internet it comes up with the definition: “Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal and social equality of the sexes”. However, over the years myths have arisen and made people think otherwise.

The main myths that come up when you search feminism are “feminism is to make women the dominant gender”, “feminism ignores men’s issues” and “feminism is simply sexism against men”. Holly Harris, who is a feminist and the creator of the Instagram page Little Women Talk, instantly disagreed with the statements and when faced with the myths she said: “Being a feminist does not mean that you don’t care about men. The feminist movement is to aid women, not to aid men. Men have had all their rights from the beginning”. Holly elaborated on the myths by saying “the term feminism would not have had to be created if women had equal rights throughout history and were treated with equal respect as men”.

Holly’s Instagram page is there to educate society about what feminism means and what it is to be a feminist. She said, “It is important that women know they aren’t alone and they understand they do have rights and that it is okay to speak up about feminism”. She added that being a feminist does not mean that you don’t care about men. Being a feminist isn’t what defines a woman on the whole. She has made it clear that she wants to inform men about what they can do to support women and women’s rights. She knows we cannot change history but we can learn from it and make changes in the present.

“We’ve been turned down by marketing agencies, we’ve been dismissed from venues because people have not believed in our case and I do think it’s been a direct effect of being women. Northern women”. Those are the words from Lauran Higgins who is one of the creators of the Nothern Girls Club. This is an organisation that was created because they felt a lack of representation for Northern women. They want to give women who are from deprived areas to have big dreams by showcasing what other women are doing.

Lauren grew up in Burnley which has been named one of the most deprived towns in the country so stereotypically they faced accent prejudice and were living in a town with low aspirations. “ When I was growing up I never saw a woman on television with a Burnely accent, I never heard a politician down at Westminster with a Yorkshire twang, I never had a career speaker in school who were women in football”. This was what sparked the idea to create the Instagram page Northern Girls Club alongside her cousin during the lockdown in 2019. To represent every northern woman and to make sure that the new generation of women don’t go through the same issues as she did.

By Gayatri Malhotra from Unsplash

By Chloe Simpson from Unsplash

"Feminism doesn’t have a problem with people it has a problem with systems. It’s not a problem with men, it’s a problem with a system that favours men"

Lauren Higgins

By Marcus Winkler from Unsplash

By Markus Spiske from Unsplash

By Valentina Conde from Unsplash

Women are more open in some cases and are speaking about the issues and their feelings about the patriarchal society, however, sometimes people can feel disregarded in terms of the statements made when people open up. When Gemma Hall, a woman who is passionate about women’s rights and feminism, was faced with these myths she instantly challenged them. She believes that as soon as people decide to focus on women’s issues, some people don’t like that and she said it’s because “there’s a clear inequality and things need to be changed as it’s a threat to the patriarchy”.

Gemma went to an International Women’s Day event held by the University of Sunderland and some amazing and inspirational women came to speak at the event, however, one of the speakers opened up about when she told her husband that this event was taking place. She told her husband excitedly that she was a speaker at this event and the first thing that her husband said “Why don’t we get an international men’s day” which made her feelings disregarded.

There in fact is an International Men’s Day and it takes place on November 19th of every year. The three core themes for this day are making a positive change to the well-being and lives of men and boys, raising awareness and/or funds for charities supporting men and boys' well-being and promoting a positive conversation about men, manhood and masculinity. These core themes help address a lot of issues that affect men and boys throughout their lives.

Iola is the creator of the Instagram page called Girls Against Oppression which focuses on perspectives of issues of oppression while also talking about everything else and educating her audience. She believes that feminism is tackling issues that represent everyone, if you are not then you are not representing equality for every gender marginalised person. This was inspired by the Spongebob episode she watched as a kid when Mr Krabs was not able to get the healthcare he needed because he did not have enough money and was turned away. This was her moment of realisation as a child that change needed to happen. She said: “It was the first time I thought about people being turned away because they didn’t have enough money for medical treatment and I thought how is this possible?”.

Iola understands there can be a lot of different veins of feminism but the main one she focuses on is Intersectional feminism. This is a movement that recognises barriers to gender equality vary according to other aspects of a woman’s identity, including age, race, ethnicity, class and religion. “I really preach intersectional feminism… it looks into the intersections of different kinds of oppression and how they interact and overlap”. Iola did not agree with the myths and explained that they were false, she said “ all of them are wrong and all of them also really try to distract you from the real issues”.

Feminism is a movement. The aim of feminism is not to make women the dominant gender. Feminism does not ignore men’s issues and feminism is not simply sexism against men.

After reading this article, you should now have an idea of what feminism actually is however, here is a quick reminder on why those myths about feminism are false...

Myth 1- "Feminism is to make women the dominant gender"

FALSE- Feminism aims to eradicate the oppression of genders imposed by old "patriarchal" societies. Feminism does not aim to create a new oppression

Myth 2- "Feminism is simply sexism against men"

FALSE- Women and men are victims of sexism and patriarchy. Sexism is when a certain gender or sex is systematically oppressed and discriminated against to the point that the oppressors have a dominant position in society, from where they can handle and manipulate the resources present in society

Myth 3- "Feminism ignores men's issues"

FALSE- Feminism suggested that the issues of women, men and other genders are not separate entities, but stem all from the same system of inequality