Double Standards: Sexism and Feminism

I loved reading this thread and I'm curious because while everyone seems to have quite strong opinions about the topic, I'm not sure if we all are really on the same page as to what feminism is. :) The topic of feminism will not be comprehensive without mentioning intersectionality. The feminist and sexist struggles of developed countries ("first world") are not the same, although comparable, to the feminist and sexist struggles of developing societies ("third world"). Asian women, Muslim women, or Black women living in the same society all have different plights compared to their White counterparts. Even just geographical differences could already spell a difference in feminist issues and perspectives. What is seen as feminism attributes in the West may not necessarily translate in the East (and even in the various cultures and societies within the respective East and West world divide). This is why a multi and cross-cultural voice of various women (and disenfranchised gender sectors) should come into play in the feminist discourse. I, personally, being from the Philippines (we are ranked 7th on the Global Gender Gap Report for 2015 by the World Economic Forum -- http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2015/rankings), never experienced the wage and employment gap struggles that my female counterparts in the USA are fighting for, but that doesn't mean we don't have struggles and issues of our own, reproductive health and choices only being one of them. Even across history, feminism has evolved depending on the needs of women in any highly patriarchal society. First it was economical and equal access to everyday provisions, then the struggle for the female body ownership (both literally and figuratively) has entered the feminist discussion as well. Now, feminism has evolved even further to encompass the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community and yes, even men. It just goes to show that feminism is a continuously evolving process and concept depending on the need or zeitgeist of a culture. That's why it's wrong to get hung up on the idea that feminism only advocates for women's rights as "meninists" claim. People are too much of a stickler for the term "feminism", with the root word being "female", I think. People should just understand that yes, feminism originated from women's struggles because they used to be, across all cultures and time periods, the disenfranchised gender. However, things are clearly changing now and feminism (or at least, in theory and in the ideal) has been adapting (although, of course, the term "feminism" itself did not change) to speak about the struggles of all disenfranchised gender sectors in various aspects of daily human life and interactions. Also, this talk about equality as it pertains to feminism is kind of confusing for me. Societal equality could only be achieved if all sectors are in equal footing and have an equal head start already to begin with. How can you say that you want to fight for equality now when it shows that the advantages, as history has clearly showed, are heavily skewed in favor of one side of the scale, i.e. gender sector? Before you even think about pushing for equality, I think the only fair way to do is to try to "tip the scales" first into a more balanced setting and at the beginning, yes, that might seem giving out advantages (for lack of a better term) to women which they don't have access to before. We can get from Point A to Point C eventually, but we need to get to Point B first. Once the scales are more or less balanced already, so to speak, then we can talk about normalizing equality. And on the topic of dates, I've never paid on a first date, but this is mostly because of the culture I was raised in, I guess. This doesn't mean I'm not open to it, though, but I'm more concerned about possibly hurting my date's ego. The idea of courtship is very much alive and kicking where I'm from. And when I say courtship, I mean the serious long-term kind. Men are expected to pursue women, not (only?) because they are seen as conquests, but because mothers, aunts, and sisters are such strong and imposing influences on men's lives here that they are expected to treat every women they encounter as they would their mothers (wait, that sounded weird..). So yeah, I'm a feminist and I believe that feminism is for all. I do hope everyone becomes a feminist, too. You may not reap the benefits of pushing for and supporting it now, but your progeny and your progeny's progeny surely would. :)

@ringo your post gave me life, thank you. <3333 Like u basically wrote everything that was in my head (and more, educate me) but better and way more eloquent.

@queenmeme I feel you so much, I swear. When I was younger, I had to look for female representations of myself in across the board media, but no one seems to be speaking for or on behalf of me. That's when I started educating myself and looking more beyond the Western feminist teachings and ideals that people have been ingraining in me. :)

I think it's mainly because people misinterpret feminism back then and feminism now. I said this earlier, but, feminism has gone to hell. It's brought up issues not related to any actual problems within society but rather individual problems that are blamed on society. It used to mean something. Now it's gone straight to hell. "Put more women in CEO positions! It's too male dominated!" Well, make more women miners and garbage collectors, it's extremely male dominated. The only and I mean ONLYYYYYYY point where heightening the prominence of women should garner is in government issued offices such as Congress. It's extremely male dominant and women are extremely underrepresented in the US congress. But putting women into CEO positions because it's mainly male doesn't make sense. Imagine the outrage if they made women into miners because it's mainly male dominant. Feminism used to be about equality, but now, today's feminists only look for benefits. Like let's be real here, this is the argument for Hillary Clinton supporters be like https://i.imgflip.com/13mrla.jpg

@Ringo I think that was a very well put together take on feminism. I know Sunbae has somewhat of a point since there are some who feel that way but from a personal perspective when I think of that word, I think of equal terms.

@X10 right? Those people give actual feminists, like us, a bad name. Some things aren't social issues at all and they're fighting for a shitty prize. I always look forward to reading Ringo's responses too. She's the universal senpai.

She really is. I feel like there was a time where I was able to formulate my sentences and information like that but she puts me to shame. I could totally use her as a teacher lol.