I gladly call myself a feminist. To many the word feminist is almost a cuss word. After realizing that I am a feminist, my (former) friends first response was, “Feminist are annoying.” Honestly I had no idea how to respond to this comment. She went on to explain how if women were truly equal, men would not be “socially obligated” to do things such as opening doors or paying for dates.
Before you make any assumptions about me, I am a conservative feminist; I am not an advocate for abortion (although I have mixed views on it), I am not a man hater, I don’t argue that women are always physically stronger then men, I am not an agressive person about my options, and I know that I am not going to change anyone’s opinion about this topic who is already set in thier opinions, I just ask that you keep an open mind while reading what I have to say.
I think the word appalled would be appropriate when I started to really learn how girls are treated differently then boys. I was in a new friendship with a male and was in a vulnerable frame of mind and was searching for companionship in the form of a friend. Well, this so called friendship did not go as I would have liked because he became angry with me. He wanted to do some things that I was not comfortable with and I let him know that I would not participate in those activities. Before I knew it he was saying things to me that were not G-d honoring. I told him to talk to me like a lady and he told me he didn’t have to do that. Then he is started dropping the f-word repeatedly and calling me a b**** because he didn’t get his way.
At this point I knew that the friendship was over, but I wasn’t going to walk away after being spoken to in this manner. I told him to respect me and he told me that he doesn’t have to do that because I am a girl. That makes sense, right? Basically because I have different body parts I don’t have to be respected. What does it really matter? We are both human; we both have legs arms, eyes, and ears and so what makes one susceptible to harassment and one isn’t? It is kind of like saying one skin color has the right to bully another based off of something they cannot control.
The media portrays women as sex objects and these boys are learning patterns as to how to treat the other gender. Is it a horrible thought that ladies are more then physical beauty but are also intellectual beings?
I am a feminist, but I know that there wouldn’t be a need to be one if our views of each other hadn’t become corrupted. If both genders genuinely respected each other in godly ways. G-d created men and women to be different but we set man made limitations on each gender. In the Christian culture, we label men and women and put limitations as to characteristics in each gender. Men are not suppose to show emotions and are to be physically and emotional strong leaders; women are suppose to be physically beautiful, good cooks, and a soccer mom. While there’s nothing wrong, per se, to have these characteristics the Bible does not explicitly say that two genders are suppose to have these in particular.
I am for women rights and for women to be portrayed for more then just a sex object. You call that being an angry feminist, I will take that as a compliment.
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