It's Just Semantics

Last night Newsnight did feminism.  They did feminism in two short films and a 5 minuite discussion with 4 white, middle class, well spoken, highly educated women. The films were interesting.  A black woman discussed how black women are objectified into bottoms, sticking in the air in music videos and a white singer talked about her run-in with the press after her shirt slipped at a concert and she accidentally exposed a (what looked like a bra-covered) breast.  Then the presenter talked about the EveryDaySexism project on Twitter and the guests were asked to comment.

The Every Day Sexism project was started as a way for women to talk about sexism, equality and women's rights.  It is a place where women can say that actions of a man made them feel uncomfortable or that they feel they have been unfairly treated just because of their gender.  This site makes for depressing and quite uncomfortable reading.  It makes you realise that many women do not feel equal and they definitely don't feel safe.

The first question that the presenter asked her three guests was, "Would you call yourself a feminist?"  And there began the only thing that seemed worth talking about.  They discussed the semantics of a word.  You can only answer the question if you have a clear idea what the word means and as a word feminism means so many different things to different people it becomes a circular argument.  The Daily Mail Journalist said that she wasn't a feminist because women had won the war already.  Women went to University, had educations and so 'job done' no need for feminists any more.  I understand her point of view.  I'm pretty happy with my life.  I don't feel opressed. The Long Suffering Husband and I work as a team in the house.  I have a job that I love and do not feel a man doing my job would be paid more or treated in a different way.  But I can't help feeling that I'm just lucky.  If I wanted to be a CEO of a large organisation, or I was poor, or had a husband who didn't believe that men and women were equal, or lived in a different country then things might be different.

Let's just stop arguing about a word.  Women in the whole world should have equal rights to men and men in the whole world should have equal rights to women.  And all gender's have the right to feel safe and not threatened by each other. It's a human rights issue.