Feminism Case

Disclaimer: This will NOT be a comprehensive view of feminism; this is only my personal view of what is valuable through a feminist lens, and values differ from person to person. I do encourage anyone interested to look into it through more educational resources than a random tumblr user. I am not a woman, so my experiences with feminism are skewed by default (men are praised for being feminists, women are demonized for it).

Feminism is a hugely multifaceted movement with an absurd amount of branches and interpretations that in its most simple form boils down to a fight for Gender Equality. More about that in a minute, though.

Feminism is not about invalidating men's opinions. Feminism is not about pulling men down the societal ladder so women can climb up and sit on the throne. Feminism is not about hating men. Most of what the popular (i.e., non-feminist) view of what feminism is, is pretty much what feminism is not.

Some of the things feminism attempts to fight are:

Rape culture: the state within any given society where rape is seen as "normal" or "expected," and rather than punishing the rapists, blame is largely placed on the victims. This can be seen in cases like the Steubenville trial, where a teenage girl drank until she passed out and was gang raped by a bunch of boys at the party; the incident was live-tweeted and there was essentially a video confession uploaded to the internet during the party. The boys got 1-2 years in juvie and the media portrayed it as if they were the victims because they had "so much potential" and now they have to waste away in kiddie prison. The general public opinion was that the girl (whose name was never released) deserved it because she should have known better than to drink so much. Which brings me to my next point,

Victim Blaming: This falls under rape culture, but is a huge focus for much of the feminist community. It's when the victim of sexual assault is blamed for their own assault, rather than the person who actually committed the crime.

Slut Shaming and Sex Negativity: Another facet of rape culture that is a huge focus for modern feminism. Sex Negativity is the idea, carried over from centuries of Christian influence, that sex (and by extension your body, and in particular your genitalia) is inherently dirty or shameful. Slut Shaming is a byproduct of that, where a woman can't be sexual in any capacity without being labelled a slut. Even dressing a certain way without ever having had sex before gets women shamed, while men are praised for having many sexual partners. On the flip side, a woman can't be starkly nonsexual either, because then she's labelled frigid or a prude. The idea is that sexuality is a natural facet of our existence and no one should be shamed for choosing to or choosing not to express themselves through a sexual outlet.

Objectification of Women in Media: This is a massive problem in our society. What this means is that, rather than being treated as fully realized human beings, the media (advertising, movies, tv, books, etc. ad infinitum) portrays women as objects of sexual desire. Instead of having her own storyline, a woman's development will be completely reliant on her male love interest; it's more likely for a woman to be killed off in the interest of furthering the plot of her boyfriend than it is that she will be giving a compelling, thought-out plot arc of her own (see: almost every woman to grace the set of Supernatural). This goes much deeper and there is a ton of educational content on this topic from TED talks to articles to essays. It's been a concern for decades.

Consent: This is another giant topic in feminism. Consent to sexual acts is meant to be given freely (i.e., without the influence of coercion), knowingly (i.e., without being inebriated), and enthusiastically, and it becomes void at any point in the encounter when one partner no longer wants to do something. It doesn't matter if you're in the middle of sex. It doesn't matter if you've had sex a thousand times before with the same partner. It doesn't matter if you're married.