Feminism

Thank you Dr. Krouse for your insights on feminism. I really took a lot from your ideas on what feminism truly represents for people in our society. In response to the question who can “do” feminist theory listed at the end, I believe that with proper understanding of the term everyone should support feminism. What it really represents is full equality between men and women, reflecting factors such as opportunities, pay amounts, looking over traditional stereotypes, etc.

Many associate feminist theory with numerous amounts of negative connotations. In class we learned that ten years ago more people would call themselves feminists compared to today. Dr. Krouse shared a quote from Susan J Douglas’s Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media, explaining some of the mistaken stereotypes relating to feminism. “We all know what feminists are. They are shrill, overly aggressive, man-hating, ball-busting, selfish, hairy, extremist, deliberately unattractive women with absolutely no sense of humor who see sexism at every turn”(7). Even though feminists methodology does not represent these ideas in actual theory, this is what people relate to sadly when they here the term.

There are examples of women who fit under the certain categories described above, but it is a shame our society groups everyone into all of these stereotypes. From this people are afraid to support feminist theory, even though its actual meaning represents none of these factors. Yesterday I learned that even though there has been a push to create a law for many years regarding equality between men and women in the workforce, it has still yet to be passed. Women are still under payed, and in some cases are not even offered jobs because of their gender. In this case I feel as though everyone should support feminism, and stop worrying about underlying stereotypes our society still holds.