I am a person fueled by passion - passion to help others, passion for traveling, passion for teaching. But I have never felt passionate about the feminist movement. As a female with a mostly privileged upbringing, I have never directly felt inequality as a woman. I have always been surrounded by equally powerful men and women and supported by the men in my life to take on any challenge, any job, and any opportunity equally because I am capable without any consideration of my gender. I have looked at the feminist movement as some people who found an inequality they were passionate about and I respected their work - I just didn't share the passion. And then, as is the curse of the feminist movement, I saw many feminists to be something more of a rebel without a cause looking to continue a fight fought decades ago.
So my experience in a man-dominated machismo culture has been nothing short of a shock. For the first time, I feel what it means to be a minority. To be discriminated against. To feel threatened and vulnerable. To be limited for no other reason than my gender. To be sexualized in every way when I did nothing to elicit or ask for such sexualization. And I see the effect this has on young girls, teenagers, mothers, and older women - an entire gender pushed down in a society they very much hold together.
I will probably never be completely comfortable with the word "feminist" and I assure you, you will not finding me burning any bras, but I will live my life as an activist for gender equality and join the many who are passionately working for a world where no man or woman will feel the discrimination, vulnerability, or marginalization based on nothing more than a gender.
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