When I read Juli Freedman’s article, it raised issues that I also wanted to
discuss, and it made me really angry the more I thought about it, so I
decided to make my own story to accompany Juli’s on feminism.
Why be a feminist? Feminism raises issues such as rape culture, sexism,
discrimination, and so on. It’s about women standing up for our rights as equal
human beings of this planet, and nothing more. We are all humans. Men, women,
children, teenagers, elderly people, yet some of those groups are not being treated as
equals. Feminism addresses the inequality directed at women.
Women are beautiful creatures, and most men don’t understand us. They think
we’re weak, the bone to their dog. But that’s just the thing; they don’t understand
us. They don’t understand that we are strong. Just because they have more muscle
capacity, and can chop down a tree, and fight in a war, doesn’t mean that women
can’t do the same, and it doesn’t mean women are weaker, or can’t run a country.
Take, the monthly menstrual cycle. It starts at puberty until the approximate age
of 50. That’s constant, unstoppable bleeding for up to eight days of every month,
for approximately 38 years. Which is around 304 days of our lives dedicated to
bleeding. And men think that we’re pathetic for often crying about it, or when we
have it? Of course they do, because they don’t menstruate, so it’s easy to make fun
of it. I mean, who would cry if you’re bleeding and getting unearthly cramps? Pfft.
And then there’s pregnancy. Now I personally haven’t been through the experience,
being 16, but I don’t know one mother, who has ever thought it was a walk in the
park. And the only pain men may have to go through throughout those nine
months is when his wife squeezes his hand too tightly as she gives birth. Remind
me again what struggles males go through? So let’s set the record straight: women
are not weak. Men are not more dominant. Women are strong. Men are strong. We
are equals.
Is it fair that our parents tell us from a young age not to talk to strangers, because
they might take advantage
of us? Especially young
girls. Is this right to be
made a target right from the
moment we
are
born,
because we have a vagina
as opposed to a penis? And
later in life, we will grow
breasts, that many peoplemen and women- view as
‘scandalous’ or ‘suggestive’
or ‘provocative’ if our shirt
collar is cut a little lower
than a turtle neck. As
females,
we
are
born
different. Just as men are born different, so doesn’t that mean we are the same?