Feminism is sadly misconceived by so many people! If you go around the streets saying you're a feminist, people just assume "She wants woman domination".
Tough, on this board, I think we all agree to say we are for gender equality, not feminine domination. And that's what feminism is about in the first place, I believe. To get to gender equality, we must solve the problems women still have in the society, equality is still not granted.
No gender should be put on a pedestal. And in a way, I think men can also be affected by the inequality. Society expects too much from men to be, you know, the MAN, the dominator, the brave, the strong, the tough...
It's sad but I've seen it, it happens all the times that men are "lowered" to the woman-state if they are not man enough. You are not enough of a man, then you are such a girl.
I think, for example, about the notion of crying. I hear too many times, and I thought it too sometimes, things like "I was touched to see that guy cry, it is just so rare". Because crying is assimilated to those ladies who get teary for nothing. But it happens that men are actually bashed because they cry, because they are not strong, or tough enough...
I think this entraves men's freedom. I don't mean they can't do what they want, but there is always a risk that some morons call them woman or gay like it was an insult. It doesn't always get to bashing, but mocking is not rare or even remarks.
Same for girls who are a lil bit more manly, it happens that they are treated like freaks because they are not enough "how a girl should be like".
So I think the guys who don't care about that and cry as they please, or don't mind doing "girl things" like, I don't know, say, ballet *thinking about Billy Elliot* contribute to feminism, because embracing your feminin side is a way to say "So what? It's just human in the end, it doesn't make me any better or any worse, it just makes me human". Woman have 'man' sides, man have 'woman' sides, and by that I mean sides that are stereotyped as from this or this gender. It's just complementar and makes us human (Yep, that's the word of the post, HUMAN)
I also think about the male stars, like Rugbymen in France, or some like Robbie Williams, who put themselves in the place of the object of desire, place that is way too often given to women. When I see that, I don't think "MEN ARE OBJECTS and women are not", I just think "It's okay for women to be portrayed as objects sometimes if men do it too, but it's not okay if women are the only one put in the object place". Thanks to the always-more-sexy-nowadays-culture, men are a lot exposed as objects of desire, but I feel like this position is still more a woman position. Like in some music videos, where the women have to play sexy while the men get to play with sexies.
What I really want is just some frigging balance.
We are all human.
There shouldn't be slut bashing, men lowering, women over-the-top putting, women lowering, men over-the-top-putting, no pedestals, objects-women and consumers-men...
No, there should be an equility, for the rights, for the sexuality, for the feelings, for the desires, the way we see each other.
When I say I'm a feminist, it doesn't mean I want to overrule men, it just means I want the humanity of each to be aknowledge, and I think we have to go through feminism to arrive to that.
None is superior. The only thing that distinguishes us is our respective anatomy. There is no stronger gender. There is no superior gender. There is no overpowering gender. There is no more-better gender. There is just us, the one human gender. Or that's the way things should be.
