Feminism Argumentative Essay

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“I think that every women in our culture is a feminist. They may refuse to articulate it but if you were to take any woman back forty years and say ‘Is this a world you want to live in?’ They would say ‘No,’” Helen Mirren, the acclaimed English actress once said. The question this statement raises is why are women refusing to identify as feminists? Through common misconceptions and miscommunications, feminism has been give a negative connotation by groups of extremists who hate men and hid behind the word feminism. Feminism needs to be redefined and revealed for what it really is, gender equality. Because feminism has been give a bad name, people believe they hate it, when in reality they just misunderstand it. Feminism is an open invitation …show more content…
After all, it 's not about the word so much as the actions. Six-time Oscar award winner, Meryl Streep, is a well known advocate for gender equality, and even dazzled many of the Hollywood tycoons with a speech about equal pay between actors and actresses in Hollywood. Although, when asked if she was a feminist, she declined and answered with, “I am a humanist. I am for nice and easy balance.” While this technically is feminism, Streep refuses to identify as a feminist because the connotations that the word carries. However, women should not be scared of saying the are feminists. It is not wrong for women and men alike to believe that women can be paid the same as their male counterparts. It is not wrong for people to hope that one day women will not need to be tied to a man to find their importance. Women should stand up if they think it 's wrong that, because they had the audacity to be born female, they are denied education, opportunities, and success. Believing that women are not property of men, but their equals is not wrong, therefore feminism is not something women should deny within themselves, but something they should …show more content…
One thing that is absolute, this message of feminism must stop. Feminism is not an excuse for women to become the gener suppressor, but it is a strive for gender equality. However, as Meryl Streep has proven by calling herself a humanist instead of a feminist, it 's not the word that matters, it 's the message. Just because the word is so commonly associated with women, gender inequality is a problem for men just as it is with women. Men suffer from social injustices just as a women does. Once we solve the inequalities for one sex, the two will began to balance. At the end of the day, feminism is just a bunch of precariously placed letters. Although severely encumbered in the shackles of a variety of emotions, feminism is just a word. Its is the actions of gender equality that need to be present in our society. Feminism needs to be seen in a new light, and women and men both need to quit being scared of the labels that society gives feminism and feminists, because gender equality needs to happen, and as Emma Watson so perfectly said during her speech, “If not now, when? If not me,

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