Feminism is about gender equality across society

I am confused. As a woman, I am perplexed by the word “feminism,” a word fraught with added nuances in meaning, thrown around hastily in complaint of a result; a word which has caused a cascade of movements that have worn on the public's ears. Feminism. In fact, I had to search the literal definition of it on Google, which only added onto my tangled thoughts and sabotaged my efforts to organize my beliefs. Regardless, I thought about the last time I helped my parents carry heavy luggage down the stairs. My sister called out, “Stop trying to be the man!” Her intentions were clearly out of concern — but why did my offer to help carry heavy suitcases suddenly change my gender? More so, why did my guy friend speak in a chipmunk voice and shimmy his shoulder when jokingly imitating a girl? It just doesn’t seem right.

Gender inequality exists. That is undeniable. Even if you believe that women should not be in the workforce, you must admit that it exists at work, in the community and in society. If there is a day that both men and women can present information on the stage and command equal respect, an hour where both men and women are granted the same opportunities in their jobs because both have worked diligently, a minute where kids are not the sole responsibility of women, then maybe, just maybe, there will be gender equality. There was a reason that I kept repeating men and women; it’s because both are affected at the heart of this issue. Men are still expected to be macho, to do the heavy lifting, and whose “manliness” is associated with the size of their penises. That’s why not only women should be concerned; this is a movement for everyone. This is what we’re advocating: Stop hastily making assumptions about someone’s work ethic, intelligence and strength based on their gender, and stop condescending to both sexes.

It’s true that men generally demonstrate greater skills in math and geometry based on their brain development and that women show greater aptitude in areas involving language. Such disparities lend support to explain why women or men are, as a whole, better than their sexual counterpart in some areas. However, just as statistics go, the mass or average does not give any information on each comprising individual or part — especially when such an average involves the whole of humanity. There are cries that there is already equality in opportunity or that there is already so much progress. True. We are on the way to solving the outer layer of gender inequality, but the inner layers that are so intertwined with our lifestyle, mannerisms and vocabulary that they are not getting paid enough attention. We use the words “stop bitching around” or other derogatory terms that basically mean stop being a girl. We need to get to the roots of this and understand feminism for what it really is, not as a vehicle to advocate female superiority or man-hate.