Where Has the Feminism Gone?

“Hey Bitches!” Welcome to my blog.

I’m sitting here in the downtown food court observing. It’s like the watering hole for teenage girls. They all gather, with their numerous bags of cheap shopping and in girl language they commence the common greeting call; “Hey Bitches!” This is usually followed by some high pitch screeching and hugging as if they haven’t seen each other since I don’t know…yesterday? OMG!

Yes, this is the common way western teenage girls greet each other, with a downgrading, derogatory term such as BITCH.

I’m quite compelled watching these completely typical young teenage girls and trying to imagine what they’re going to be like when they grow up. Taking into consideration all these girls look like they have tried to dress for a Nicky Minaj video clip (hit and miss, sadly) and the only conversation they’ve been having this whole time is senseless bitching, my imagination only stretches as far as teenage motherhood (ouch, sorry).

But I just can’t help thinking to myself… Where have all the feminists gone?

What has happened to the modern woman?  Every time we casually degrade our woman friends with the phrase “bitch” or “slut” aren’t we taking a step back in feminism? We are so lucky to be born into western civilization, where woman have the right to vote and become prime minister and anything we can dream of! But it seems we take our rights for granted, if girls don’t appreciate or understand the power they have at hand, how can we expect them to care about woman’s rights in other countries? Did you know in Afghanistan more than 50% of Afghan girls are married or engaged by aged 10, almost 60% of girls are married by 16 and 9 out 10 women are illiterate!

When 9 out of 10 girls don’t even have the choice to education in Afghanistan, I almost vomit in my mouth when I think that I know girls, who dumb themselves down in front of a male to appear more “cute”. Thanks American movies! Job well-done at dumbing down our future woman leaders. But who is to blame? Is it pop culture? Is feminism not attractive? Or are young girls simply not taught to care of our past feminists sisters?

…One thing is for sure, feminism is in need of revival.

The Pop Culture Influence

The majority of teenage girls are more likely to know of pop singer Kesha, than Kate Shepard – The most prominent member of the NZ suffrage movement.

Pop culture is a huge influence to how we think, and it’s especially good at influencing the young impressionable minds of teenage girls.

Today’s role models usually stem from  Hollywood celebrity status’s such as Lindsay Lohan, Snookie and Kim Kardashian –who got famous because of her “leaked” sex tape -and yet these women are idolized. The priority of these women is to be the most beautiful, eligible, the most famous. Fashion magazines pressuring girls to care more about their weight than using their brains! Why isn’t intelligence or a woman’s integrity to achieve as highly glamorized in today’s media?
However, even though the majority of pop-media tends to pressure woman into only valuing their sexuality, it’s not all a negative influence. Take singer P!nk for example and her video “Stupid Girls” where she parodies the stupidity of idolized female celebrities such as Paris Hilton, while singing lyrics “Where, oh where, have the smart people gone?”.

It is safe to say that the mainstream music industry presenting woman as sexual objects is so common and that kind of negative influence can shape a young girls way of thinking.

Why Isn't Feminism Popular?

In 1968, feminists gathered outside the Miss America pageant.

They crowned a live sheep to compare Miss America to ‘live stock’ and symbolically threw feminine objects such as mops, makeup, high heels and corsets into the “Freedom Trash Can”.

These were the bra burning feminists, working at an extreme level to liberate themselves from male oppression.

This was one of the initial sparks of modern feminism. But somehow the idea of feminism today isn’t as appealing. Maybe it’s because of the stereotypical idea of a feminist- butch looking, single, self liberated, pro-abortion, man-hater.
But why shouldn’t the idea of feminism be attractive? It’s not at all to isolate men, or to put females on some kind of global pedestal or be sexist! But it’s about empowering women for the right reasons and not conforming to social pressure which are usually formed by male standards. This does not mean we have to stop shaving, start burning our bras and never wear makeup. It just means that the core of feminism, what it really stands for, our liberal rights, self respect and woman ambition should be taught and praised in young girls. The idea of feminism should be as popular as Barbie to a toddler. Barbie-who by the way in my opinion is a feminist as I decided after reading this blog:

Barbieisafeminist

“When it comes to careers, Barbie is a brilliant role model. She's been a doctor, a vet, a palaeontologist, an astronaut, a firefighter, a pop singer, a teacher and a film star. She has even been a presidential candidate. Here are some things I defy you to imagine Barbie doing: housework; sucking up to men; cowering; being bullied or intimidated; being sexually harassed”.

The Politics

In this recent poll  it shows that 75 percent of teens have a Facebook page. The data also showed that 30 percent of teen girls check their Facebook’s continuously throughout the day. All that time on the Internet and yet, when I took my own personal survey of girls aged between 13-23 only 1% of the girls could locate Afghanistan on a world map. 213 of the worlds Woman’s rights experts were surveyed in this recent poll: that shows what they consider to be the world’s worst place to be a woman. Afghanistan was number one.

So aren’t we lucky to be living in a first world country? Can you imagine if Kate Sheppard was more interested in finding a suitable husband than her own liberal rights? We might be living in a society where as women we still can’t vote. But then of course, it seems we

are living in a society where teenage girls care more about updating their Facebook status than deciding who to vote for. So thanks for nothing Kate Shepard! How can we feel empathy for women’s rights in other countries such as Afganistan if we don’t even care, as women, about our own rights? This an inspirational video about an organization called The Girl Effect; which aims to inspire girls, into helping other girls around the globe and showing how the idea of feminism can be put into action.

Also a very powerful website which is all about Muslim Feminism taking a stand, which i found very inspirational and hopfully more people will become aware and support this website; http://muslimfeminists.tumblr.com/websites
The politics of the issue is -as quoted from the feminist.com website;

"Women's issues intersect with every other part of life".

Lets Make a Change

To change the way the world thinks, we have to change the way that we think. As women we should empower each other. We should care about our right to vote because once in the past, a bunch of women cared enough about our rights to change that law for us. We should priorities our intelligence rather than our sex appeal. An element of feminism should be in every young girl’s heart. Change does not start with the word “Bitch”.

Referencing

Cynthia B. Lloyd -Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries, Washington D.C.: National Academies Press 2005.

International Centre for Research on Women, Development Initiative on Supporting Healthy Adolescents, 2005

Trust in Education Organisation Website

Jo Freeman -On the Origins of the Women's Liberation Movement 1

The Girl Effect Official Fact Sheet

Nadine Cheung - Lead Editor, Writer at AOL