How do you know what is trending these days? Social Networking. All things from fashion to books, from TV series to movies, even phrases and trends in ideology can be identified on social networking sites. One trending ideology which is dying a painful death on such websites is Feminism. According to an article on Wikipedia, feminist theory advocates an equal society for man and woman; it proposes economic, social, cultural and political equality for both the sexes. It seeks to understand gender equality by examining women’s role in social circles. Feminist theories emerge from feminist movements which aim to understand why gender inequality exists in a society. Feminist activists argue and campaign for women rights such as voting, law against sexual harassment, promoting bodily integrity, autonomy and reproductive rights for women. What? Feminism does not mean hating all boys and disagreeing with what they are saying just because they are men? No, it does not! Feminism is a belief, which is widely mistaken as dislike for men or entrusting women with independence to an extent that they chose to reject the other sex. This is entirely a false understanding and is the reason feminism is dying a painful death. Now that we have established what it means then understanding what it doesn’t makes it easier. Off late a direct relationship can be observed between the rise in crime against women and rise in the number of people who call themselves feminists. These people are all for castration, capital punishments. In an extremely half- witted attempt to empower all women, they have forgotten the essence of feminism. It is important to understand why the neo feminists believe that feminism implies man hating. The reason is quite simple actually; it is what economists call the trickledown effect. The mainstream feminist movements do not condemn, in fact use man hating statements to project their feminist image and hence when the general public (who relies heavily on their opinion) reads or hears them, man hating statements are what they gather. My question to them is that if they have to use man hating statements to get media attention then isn’t the essence of feminism already lost? Doesn’t that defeat the feminist ideology? Feminism seeks gender equality and for that if one gender has to resort to hate statements against the other, how is that equality? Using man hating statements is not strengthening feminism it is reinforcing patriarchy. I am not saying that these movements are not feminist; all I am saying is that because of statements used by them, the idea of feminism is being mislaid and construed in a wrong way. There is a very famous quote which says that “ feminism is a radical notion that women are also people” Lets just leave it at that.
