I am Not a Female And I Love Feminists!

Firstly, feminists are awesome. I was recently directed to read “I am a Female and I am so over Feminists” by Gina Davis. The more I read, the more I came to realise Davis has no concept of what feminism actually is and thus what she is actually rejecting. But I recognise, this is how internalised sexism and a lack of education (or ignorance in this instance) work to disadvantage women the world over.

Bad news on that front, America — and the generation which holds the keys to its future, is not getting smarter:

Fully one half (50%) of America’s millennials failed to reach level 3 in literacy and nearly two-thirds (64%) failed to reach this minimum level in numeracy. These data reveal that a relatively large percentage of our young adults cannot perform literacy tasks that ask them to “identify, interpret, or evaluate one or more pieces of information and often require varying levels of inferencing,” or numeracy tasks that “require several steps and may involve the choice of problem solving strategies or relevant information.”

I’m presently reading The Age of American Unreason (written in 2008) by Susan Jacoby and I can’t recommend it enough. She argues that “elitism” isn’t a bad thing per se and was something America once deeply embraced. It has since become a derogatory term, negatively affecting many areas of life. Here are a few points she makes early on:

• “Americans are alone in the developed world in their view of evolution by means of natural selection as “controversial” rather than as settled mainstream science.”
• “More than two thirds of Americans, according to surveys conducted for the National Science Foundation over the past two decades, are unable to identify DNA as the key to heredity. Nine out of ten Americans do not understand radiation and what it can do to the body. One in five adults is convinced that the sun revolves around the earth.”
• “…it is easy to understand why a public with such a shaky grasp of the most rudimentary scientific facts would be unable or unwilling to comprehend the theory of evolution. One should not have to be an intellectual, or, for that matter, a college graduate to understand that the sun does not revolve around the earth…This level of scientific illiteracy provides fertile soil for political appeals based on sheer ignorance.”
• “One important element of the resurgent anti-intellectualism in American life is the popular equation of intellectualism with a liberalism supposedly at odds with traditional American values. The entire concept is summed up by the right-wing rubric “the elites”. Prominent right-wing intellectuals, who themselves constitute a prosperous and politically powerful elite, have succeeded brilliantly at masking their own privileged class status and pinning the label “elites” only on the liberals.”
• “The right-wing has been able to get away with this disingenuous logic — and with putting it in the mouths of genuinely anti-intellectual right-wing politicians — because non-reading Americans know less and less about their nation’s political and intellectual history.”
• “The most ominous and obvious manifestation of this ignorance, serving as both cause and effect, is an absence of curiosity about other points of view.”

Susan at one points mentions how people, “…whether on the left or right, tend to tune out any voice that is not an echo.” That’s right, echo chambers strike again. You might have read the above list and said, “no, not me!” Well, congrats, you’re sadly the minority. I read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay, “We Should All Be Feminists” (bless her) though you could also watch her 30-minute Ted Talk if you’re curious.

Here are a few points…

• The idea of feminism has a lot of negative baggage attached to it, in some ways, it’s a dirty word for many who don’t exactly know why
• The idea that boys and girls are raised differently. They are taught from an early age that men will always have a different set of rules and women will never be their equals
• The idea that feminism isn’t just for women, if everyone can get behind equality, we’ll all be better off

You should read/watch for yourself, if only for the pace of Adichie’s words and her quick wit but back to the “anti-feminist movement”…

What Davis wrote in May of 2016 has been shared over 1.6 million times and boasts over 3.4K comments. These are not quietly held or isolated beliefs. But what is startling as I read her feminist critique was a notable lack of facts. It was exclusively opinion-based, which is fine, if you have a basic grasp of what you’re even talking about. Davis, does not. She’s using a platform to effectively spread misinformation about feminism, which others read, further internalise and distribute. It’s all very problematic.

Feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. It’s not about men holding doors open, women who like and enjoy cooking or whether chivalry is dead or not.

“First of all, this is the 21st century. Women have never been more respected. Women have more rights in the United States than anywhere else in the world.”

Actually, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Sexism is still rampant and are women are still underpaid and underrepresented everywhere you turn. I feel like it goes without saying but when you have a leader of the free world who openly talks about moving on women like bitches and grabbing women by the p*ssy, women aren’t as respected as Davis would have you believe. Also, having more rights relative to other women in the world is no substitute for equality.

“There is a distinct divide between both the mental and physical makeup of a male and female body. There is a reason for this. We are not equals. The male is made of more muscle mass, and the woman has a more efficient brain (I mean, I think that’s pretty freaking awesome). The male body is meant to endure more physically while the female is more delicate. So, quite frankly, at a certain point in life, there needs to be restrictions on integrating the two.”

So women can’t be equal to men because they aren’t physically as strong as them? Hypothetical (but very real) scenario for you to ponder: A woman and a man are both account executives in a company. Why should the number of push-ups that either of them do impact her right to earn an equal wage?

“We are still climbing the charts in 2016. Though there is still considered to be a glass ceiling for the working female, it’s being shattered by the perseverance and strong mentality of women everywhere. So, let’s stop blaming men and society about how we continue to “struggle” and praise the female gender for working hard to make a mark on today’s workforce.”

Nope, research suggests the gender pay gap is increasing. And I suppose, technically, if men represent the majority of CEOs or hiring managers, you could blame them for dragging their feet on equal pay. Why aren’t politicians, CEOs and the like lining up to make sure pay is transparent and women are fairly compensated? That’s why women still “struggle” and fight for what they deserve.

“Men and women are meant to complement one another — not to be equal or to over-power. The genders are meant to balance each other out. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

Sorry, but this sentence doesn’t express a clear understanding of feminism or the role gender plays in the world today. This is what internalised sexism looks and sounds like. Read up on internalised sexism here.

“There is no “dominant” gender. There’s just men and women. Women and men. We coincide with each other, that’s that. Time to embrace it.”

Again, this is not a fact. Women are actually the more dominant gender in education and in some workplaces where “12 of the 15 fastest-growing industries are primarily occupied by women.” However increased visibility does not equate an increase in power, because men hold majority of power thanks to the patriarchy! (A word notably absent from her critique on feminism).

In the words of Sally Peck I’ll close by saying, “Feminism is not about hating men. It is not about losing your femininity. It’s about equality. Which is something that we still need.”

Also, I just love feminists.