Jeff Davis | Vent Section Manager

2/22/02

There's been a lot of talk about feminism lately. Not just in the newspaper but in communities everywhere. This can most certainly be a good thing; the free exchange of ideas is most basic to our survival. I'm troubled, however, by people who seem to be getting the wrong idea about feminism. I'm a man and I consider myself a feminist because feminism is for everyone. I'm no Sandra Gilbert or Simone de Beauvoir but to be very honest, feminism is filled with good, accessible common sense.

What bothers me is the entire misconception that feminists or "feminazis" or whatever some would like to label them are simply out to dominate the world and remove men from their thrones, kill their children, burn underwire, melt each Barbie they can find, and braid their armpit hair. While we are living in a patriarchy of sorts, I don't feel feminists are so pedantic to think moving any flavor of tyranny from one end of the spectrum to the other will solve anything.

Consider for a moment what women have been through in the past few millennia or so. Embarrassment, public ridicule and ridiculous social strata (just to name a few) have branched out to reach women on the most basic levels-political, domestic, social and even the medical. Women have always had the capacity to make rational decisions but they weren't granted suffrage until 1920. Not too long before then, the male-dominated medical profession would not give thorough physicals to women because they didn't think the vagina was very pretty. As if women went to Woolworth's to choose whether or not they wanted one.

Despite all of this, feminism, I feel, doesn't ask for pity because of this outrage. The National Organization for Women, or NOW, has a very biting slogan: "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." We all know that women are people but still there are ways that they are not treated in congruence with the way men are treated. Feminism calls for women not only to be treated as people but for women’s choices to be respected. That means feminism branches out to all women-from women who aren’t in a romantic relationship and have strong career goals to women who stay at home with the children. I will allow that some relationships can have the nasty characteristic of confining women to a role but she has the choice to get out of that relationship and it should be respected.

A lot of the stereotype comes from literature. Brilliant scholars like Monique Wittig and Virginia Woolf haven’t always articulated feminist ideals that immediately click in the norm. Closer examination reveals that what they're saying, on many levels, makes a lot of sense. Language is very powerful but words can't always be taken at face value. Many writers like Zora Neale Hurston, Kate Chopin, Toni Morrison, Gloria Anzaldua and countless others all write differently and have different things to say. There's a huge, beautiful and intricate mystique about feminism but there aren't enough pages in any newspaper or magazine to describe it.

I mentioned before that women aren't asking to be seen as victims. Think of the entire gender as a culture peppered with a bounty of subcultures. Any man can agree with me that there are some things we'll never understand about women simply because they are women. Why not celebrate that difference? From the most basic levels of the way women get up in the morning and go through their routine to expressing their opinions on global issues, each thing they do to get them through the day is in some way rooted in their femininity. In the past and in our present there are still institutions that primarily and latently rob women of that culture each day. To allow that to happen would be grossly similar to the way our government killed off 98 percent of the indigenous people of this land. Feminists don’t want to see that happen and even if you don’t consider yourself a feminist you probably wouldn’t be too thrilled with the death of a culture either. As such, feminism is extremely necessary.

So why is this for everyone, even men? For me, it's all about harmony. Men and women need to be accepting of each other's differences in order for the environment to be balanced. Like I said before, the free discourse of opinion is what makes our country great and it has the potential to make this whole world great. If a feminine voice is silenced, who will follow? If you take a few human rights away from a few humans, who will be the next to feel a little less human? Feminism also serves as a forum for ideas, just like any solid ideal. If you keep the women quiet, someone is eventually going to put duct tape over your mouth, too. This does not stop at free expression either. Due process of law, among other things, hasn't always smiled upon women and if that continues, certain institutions could get anyone.

A few of you might think I'm just using "soap box rhetoric" to get laid. There may in fact be a few people who'd say this for such petty reasons. I'm simply a person who's eager for a better world for now and the future. Feminists have much to contribute and what I've written doesn't even hold a candle to all that feminism encompasses. So don't be squeamish. Check us out sometime.