Deep Fried Feminism: What is a feminist?
By: Megan Graves, Columnist
Hey there, Towerlight reader! My name is Megan Graves. I’m an English major entering my junior year here at Towson University. I enjoy romantic walks to my refrigerator, singing loudly in my shower and being a feminist.
Now, before you pin me as a penis-hating monster, allow me to explain the real definition of feminism. Feminism is a movement that actively works to help women gain equality with men. We don’t want to be, or think we are, any better than men, we just want to have the same type of basic rights that men have. For example: equal pay, rights to our uteruses, and for the love of all that is good, no more slut-shaming. Women like sex too, you know.
Those are just a few of the “lighter” issues that feminists are working on. Some of the more serious problems that the movement addresses include objectification, sexual assault and violence toward women. These things are unfair and frightening, to say the least, and feminists want to put an end to them.
The second term I’m going to define is “misandry.” Misandry is the belief that women are better than men. Some people share this belief, but call themselves feminists. That isn’t cool. There is a large difference between a misandrist and a feminist. The two words are not interchangeable. If someone hates men, then they are not a feminist, despite what their Tumblr page might say.
In this column, I’ll be discussing many different issues and expressing my opinions on them through a feminist lens. Basically, this column is your weekly dose of lady-power. I’ll also be discussing stigmas that harm men as well, so stay with me gentlemen. Young adulthood can be some shit, man, especially when it comes to harmful gender stereo-types. We all have a bunch of issues that we need to overcome and I hope this column makes that process a little more enjoyable. After all, everything’s better deep-fried.
The vast majority of your article was basically “Yeah, I’m a feminist, but not one of those man-hating ones.” You don’t need to pander to male audiences in order to express that you believe in gender equality. You don’t need to work so hard to convince people that your feminism isn’t going to step on any male toes. What you do need to do, however, is address the very real, intersectional issues affecting women today. I would have hoped that in the introduction to your feminist column – the only one in the Towerlight, I might add – you would have done more to shed light on these incredibly serious issues. For example, you could have replaced one of your “we don’t want to be…better than men (for real, though?)” sentiments with an extra sentence or two about equal pay and how it impacts hispanic and black women significantly more than the 76-cents to the dollar we are all familiar with. Or, instead of an entire paragraph denouncing misandrists, you could have added that abortion issues go beyond rights to one’s uterus and include the problem of low income women lacking access to abortion clinics. Also, this may be a little far reaching, but misandry doesn’t mean that women think they are better than men, it simply refers to a hatred of men. In order to really understand misandry, you need to take into account the centuries of female oppression and personal experiences that may have harmed the (arguably very small number of) woman who really do hate men. I really hope that in the future, you will use this column in a much more productive, helpful way.