Before I begin, I just want to make it clear that I am not anti-woman. Two weeks ago, I wrote a piece detailing the struggles of women in combat sports and how they have fought to achieve equality in that realm of entertainment.
Turning to economics, the United States Department of Labor has shown that the average man’s median weekly income is $860, as opposed to $706 for women. It’s clearly evident that women have indeed faced inequities in many aspects of life for generations. The rise of feminism has been rooted in good intentions while striving for social change—but somewhere along the way, that point was lost.
The modern wave of feminism has become muddled and distorted by delusion. Like the Black Lives Matter movement, which started with good intentions as well, feminism targets a certain group of individuals and essentially places society in a black-and-white, binary competition.
By this, I’m referring to the fact that feminism pits “victimized” women against society as a whole. It doesn’t take into account that there are indeed successful women in the real world.
I’m not only talking about successful female CEOs, musicians, athletes, etc. I’m talking about the hard-working mothers who have to drop their kids off at a daycare with tears in their eyes as they go to work just to make an honest dollar. I’m talking about the stay-at-home mothers who raise their children without complaint. I’m talking about the women who don’t insist on “fighting the patriarchy,” but rather adapt to their cultural milieu.
Whether you like it or not, there is indeed a social order in place. This is the same social order that demands that the majority of our generation go to college, get a degree and start working to make something of themselves without complaint.
Under this social order, there is never true equality for every single stratum of society. Social, political and economic inequality will always be present in certain sectors of society. I can assure you that as a brown-skinned man in America that racial inequality will always be prevalent, but we cannot allow ourselves to be victimized by this objective truth.
Instead of promoting the idea of empowering women, today’s wave of feminism instead sells victimization at the cheap rate of stigmatization of their own message.
For example, you can look at any feminist Tumblr post and you’ll see buzzwords like “patriarchy” and “hegemonic masculinity” being thrown around just for the sake of justifying their internalized oppression. Modern day feminists have ultimately become caricatures of what was once a legitimate movement for women.
When you show up to a rally with signs that say “Pussies in Formation,” do you expect anyone to take your argument seriously? I may be wrong, though perhaps it’s due to the perception of sexist feminists taking precedence over those who actually advocate for justice and equality for men and women alike.
It’s no doubt that women experience inequality in various sectors of life, but when feminists are out there talking about “killing all men” and “burning down the patriarchy,” it really leads me to believe that their morals and values have been displaced and that they are using the feminist ideology for a far more insidious purpose.
I don’t buy into the idea of feminism – or at least the modern-day rendition of it. Feminism shouldn’t be about tearing men down through victimization, but reaching common ground through empowerment.
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