Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics

The shift between the matriarchy and patriarchy cultures has sparked a fire inside many strong females. A fire in which females are now more willing to make a difference not only to their life but the lives of every individual around them. This is very essential because these young women will open their eyes and realize the importance of feminism and why it matters so much! “...It’s progressive and--as cheesy as this sounds--it's about making your life better…” (Valenti,6). In today's society, we have seen how individuals both female and some male,are more involved and accepting of feminism.

For me feminism is amazing! It isn't a horrible concept like many folks make it out to be. “See how feminism can touch and change your life and all our lives… Come closer and you will see: feminism is for everybody.” (Hooks, 1). For the first 7 years of my life I was never a stranger to the male domination.

I grew up believing that growing in a patriarchal society was the most normal thing in the world.

Get quality help now

RhizMan

Verified writer

Proficient in: Feminism

4.9 (247)

“ Rhizman is absolutely amazing at what he does . I highly recommend him if you need an assignment done ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

When my parents separated, it was then when I learn and adapted into the matriarchal culture. “By raising children without sexism women hoped to create a future world where there would be no need for an anti-sexist movement.” (Hooks, 72). Although the adjustment from a patriarchal to matriarchal culture was a bit weird for 7 year old me. I soon learned how many of friends went to the same transition as me, for their parents also separated/divorced and now their mother was the head of the house.

Growing up these past 10 years in a matriarchal culture has helped shaped me into the strong independent women I am today. I´ve become the person I am thanks to my mother who proved to my father that she was capable of giving me the best quality of life without him by her side. “Love can never take root in a relationship based on domination and coercion.” (Hooks,103).

According to the dictionary feminism is defined as “The theory of the political,economic, and social equality of the sexes.” (Merriam Webster Dictionary 2018). My definition of feminism is standing up and fight as long as it takes for what's right, so that no women gets left behind. Fight against the sexist standards that men have against women (not smart enough to know about politics, not pretty enough, etc) , fighting for equal pay, fighting so that our voices are able to be heard and not ignored. Jessica Valenti book Full Frontal Feminism chapter on “Sex and the City Voters, My Ass”, touched upon an important topic that relates quite well during this time of year. Author Valenti touches on the topic of politics. She talked about how many women are not quite into politics as if politics is not something that should be of importance to some ladies. Jessica Valenti mentioned how maybe one of the reasons why women aren't really into voting is surely because they might have been told that their opinion doesn't matter at all. “Women are pretty consistently told that they don't know what they're talking about, and their opinions are often dismissed. Add to that a general self-consciousness about all things political, and we have a problem.” (Valenti, 214)

Bell Hooks Feminism Is For Everybody, Chapter 6 “Beauty Within and Without” discusses on the challenge women had on themselves. The challenge with the sexist thinking on how their bodies are supposed to be according to men. She stated how a powerful feminist movement began to follow, since many female old or young were socialized on sexist teachings that their sole value laid on their overall appearance. When the movement began in the 60's women choose not to wear a bra or a girdle in order for themselves to feel more attractive to a man. Challenging the sexist thinking about how the female body was one of the most powerful interventions that was made by a contemporary feminist movement that would later make a big difference for many women around the world in the future. “Challenging sexist thinking about the female body was one of the most powerful interventions made by contemporary feminist movement.” (Hooks,31)

Since my freshman year of high school, I have been involved in a few feminist actions. #WhyIStayed, #EffYourBeautyStandards and #MeToo. These are just some of the feminist actions that mean a lot to me due to personal reasons. I always encourage my friends to participate in them with me because one day it's going to change the world. #WhyIStayed was the first movement I began to support because it deal with domestic violence victims and why they decided to stay in the relationship. It was the first movement I learned about that truly introduced me to feminism because of my mother who for more than 20 years was a domestic violence victim. #EffYourBeautyStandards encouraged me to ignore the “normal beauty standards” that you can only be beautiful if your skinny. This movement that began in 2015 opened up my eyes to understand that my size doesn’t matter because in the end it's all about being comfortable in my own skin!

#MeToo is one of the most recent movements to have grabbed the attention of the media. A powerful movement that is aimed towards the victims of sexual harassment and assault. This movement in my opinion was the one that really hit the spot and made me breakdown with tears of sadness, when I saw how people started to tweet #MeToo on twitter to signify that they also happen to be a victim. That was the first time since my sexual assault incident in which I didn't feel alone. It broke me just a bit to see more than 1 million tweets of victims speaking out for the first time with 20 of those tweets being girls from my high school. This movement turned me into the hardcore feminist I am now, because I'm now more involved in organizations then ever before. Participating in these actions give me hope that one day these movements will encourage people to open their eyes and realize just how much of a difference it can make to support he organizations are to many individuals. These little actions are what will make a difference in our children's lives 5-10 years from today. Actions that will encourage many victims to step out of the dark and understand that they are not alone.