Feminist but Not Feminist: The Rejection of The Feminist Label

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The reason behind victim blaming mainly sprouts from the inability of people to find a solution to the injustices recurring, and therefore resort to believing that the victims brought it upon themselves to be victimized. In an effort to understand the wrongs in society, a lot of people psychologically form a reason in their minds to obstruct the fact of injustice and resort to victim blaming in the hopes of satisfying their thoughts. The problem here is the act of injustice is being hidden behind the victim, thus resulting to the lack of action in address the suffering of people because of these societal injustices.

Feminism caters to as much people as their scope allows which is the reason why it continues to empower the oppressed, most especially in countries where the victims’ voices are often left unheard. Some people see feminism as a movement which emphasizes women's helplessness and portrays them as victims of men. However, this can only be said by people who are in countries that have already adjusted their systems to serve both men and women (Eyler). In countries which are still under a highly patriarchal system, the injustices suffered by women oftentimes remain unnoticed, and when it is put to public, cases such as rape are deemed to be the victim’s fault. The movement aims to address the system which is possibly the root of these kinds of injustices, and empower the victim to rise beyond their oppression. People who are more privileged are given the moral obligation to help in the advocacy of those who experience injustices and oppression.

Although feminism's intentions are commonly misunderstood, the movement aims not to destroy the systems working in our society, but to reconstruct these into becoming better for all people, regardless of any kinds of classification, and ultimately set towards social and political improvements. “...the existence of women's liberation constituted a tremendous impetus to rethink society, the economy, culture and politics” (Rowbotham 9). With feminism’s goal of eradicating the injustices ruling people’s everyday lives, the society and its systems are greatly affected in a way that it is influenced by the movement to change its workings to lessen or eradicate gender biases and inequalities in all aspects.

According to Pateman, “The new development in feminism is that contemporary work is distinguished by a radical challenge to the most fundamental aspects of existing social and political theory” (2). Most of the injustices in society are brought about by systems that have been working for so long; feminism chooses to look at the roots of these systems in political and social aspects to further understand why these started to be so, the influences behind these, in the hopes to change the current state of these systems. There is a distinct connection between “...self-emancipation and social emancipation. Changing oneself was part of changing the world” (Charles Fourier qtd in Robotham 8). As feminism strives to eradicate these social and gender inequalities, it also makes an effort to empower individuals who have long been part of these inequity, and ultimately aims for a ripple effect to help people understand and accept both the differences and similarities of genders and realize how unjust it is to create biases based on uncontrollable measures.

Contemporary feminism believes that much; if not all of human suffering is not part of an unchangeable human nature, but rather caused by the injustices of our society which in this case, we humans have the power to eradicate. By gearing social arrangements towards better ends, contemporary feminists believe that it is possible to achieve genuine social harmony (Gottlieb xiii). Knowing that the systems working in our society, the same systems which bring about injustices, are created and constantly reshaped by human beings; it then follows that we too are capable of reconstructing these systems to encourage equality between all kinds of people regardless of any unjust factors such as social status, race and genders. Feminism fights to deconstruct and reconstruct these systems to reach the ultimate goal of social harmony and provide equal opportunities.

Society has undoubtedly become more equal in terms of gender opportunities over the ages; however inequalities continue to persist in the lives of countless people all over the world; which is why feminism is still greatly relevant today. In discussing inequalities still common today, Quinonez notes:

Seventeen percent of the world population is still illiterate and two-thirds of them are women, according to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It’s expected that by 2020, 140 million girls will become child brides and although domestic violence exists among both sexes, domestic violence has a significantly higher rate than that of men. One in four women will experience domestic violence, according to Safe Horizon” (Quinonez).

Slowly, the ways and workings of society are shifting to provide equal treatment to everyone; however, we are still far from reaching total equality. Cases of oppression such as the ones mentioned above continue to persist in different parts all over the world, and knowing this fact is a reason good enough for feminism to still be considered relevant. It is a movement which fought its way to earn women more rights, and decrease the oppressions and inequalities women faced for years; its goals remain relevant as long as injustices occur.

The anti-feminism campaign Women Against Feminism has undoubtedly received a lot of attention especially in the sector where it started and where it continues to thrive, social media. The campaign used famous social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, wherein women from all over the world posted pictures of themselves holding banners stating why they are against feminism, usually in a sentence starting with “I don’t need feminism because…” This anti-feminist campaign started in July 2013 and has then garnered thousands of likes in Facebook, and a whole lot more of attention from feminist, anti-feminists, and those in between. Majority of these reasons stated by people in the campaign clearly shows how misunderstood the movement really is. The misconceptions known to feminism for a very long time resurfaced, ranging from its issue of man-hating, overpowering men, women victimization, removing the systems, and others.

However, most of these anti-feminists are women who are more privileged, and who don’t experience the inequalities that other people from more patriarchal, or tightly systemed places do. “We have to keep struggling to go beyond our own situation. This means recognizing that the emphases which have come