To me, feminism is the movement throughout society to create full equality between all men and women throughout all races, it allows everyone to be on an equal playing field and it eliminates sexism all together. I’d consider myself a feminist because I believe that women deserve the right to be viewed as equal in all facets of life whether it be political, economic, sports etc.
Still today, some men are so ignorant that they think that women should be at their home caring for the children while the men work to provide for their family. I can’t agree with this in the slightest degree because if a woman wants to work, who is to say she can’t? She has that equal right to make her own decisions and go out and work if she wants to. I think our country is definitely taking steps in the right direction when it comes to feminism but there is still work to be done. Having both a presidential and vice presidential candidate in this past election that were female’s just shows that there is advancement in this countries views of equality. There are definitely a lot of issues that are still out there today with certain social views that associate feminists with just being a lesbian movement, or the notion that feminists are women who want to control the world and take all the power from men, “man haters”. These two ideas are crazy to me and I still can’t fully understand how people can truly believe this nonsense.
I think a good example of women still not getting the credit they deserved is in the case of the UConn women’s basketball team. A UCLA Bruins Men’s Basketball program won 88 consecutive games from 1971-1974 and this year the UConn Women’s basketball program beat that Division 1 basketball record and got to 90 consecutive wins. Not many people in the country seemed to give these women the credit that they deserved and constantly put down their record saying that the competition isn’t the same as men and its easier to win 90 games in a row in a women’s sport. This drives me nuts because these women worked so hard to break this record and no one has ever done it before so how can people judge them and say their record isn’t that great. It’s an unbelievable accomplishment and it really bugs me they didn’t get all the credit that should have come their way. Even though a lot of people didn’t give them credit I will say that President Obama personally called the coach of the team to congratulate them which I think was a class act and definitely a step in the right direction.
Hi Matt-I was interested in reading what someone other than a female thought about this subject and I enjoyed reading what you wrote. I especially like your example of the UConn's Women's basketball team and the fact that people were not giving them the credit they deserved just because they were a women team. Basketball is basketball and a team is a team. It takes desire, hardwork and committment to acheive some thing like the UConn's women team accomplished and any team whether made up of male or females or both would still need to work just as hard to achieve something like that.
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting that President Obama called to congratulate the team. I'm not big on politics but that was a class act, as you said, and I'm glad such an important figure recognized the team's accomplishments.
I 100% agree with how you said that men can be so ignorant at times and say that the woman should be at home caring for their children. I don't hate anything more when men say that women aren't good for anything else but cleaning and cooking. I definitely think women are good for much more than that and so shouldn't everyone else. It is so great that women have stepped up though during elections. It shows just how equal they are and how intelligent they are as well. I never heard of that story of the UConn's womens basketball but that makes me mad too. I played basketball for a very long time and when we would beat a team, people would just say things like "yeah but you're girls there's no competition" or something along those lines. Very good blog I enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteWe see this so often in college athletics in terms of the double standard between men's and women's teams. Although I am not a sports fan, I get so angry when I see people not giving women's teams their due, even when they are winning championships! This is a clear example of misogyny because women who excel at athletics are simply seen as less than men, even those men who are mediocre at best.
ReplyDeleteI think the choice of who goes to work for a family and how stays at home caring for children and home affairs should be a decision that both people in a relationship should make in the interest of their children. I believe it is important to have at least one parent stay at home for the earlier years of childhood, whether this is the man or women should be a decision that the couple should make.
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