Feminism represents the equality between sexes, and focuses a lot on women’s rights as over the centuries, women have been labelled as ‘housewives’. Feminism today has taken an important role and it is one of the most discussed topics worldwide because not a long time ago, the ‘ideal’ role of women staying at home, not being able to vote has been introduced as an important topic to discuss. And feminism is not just a topic to discuss. It is an issue.
According to Britannica, even at ”the end of the 19th century in France, they were still compelled to cover their heads in public, and, in parts of Germany, a husband still had the right to sell his wife.”
Selling your own wife? Even if in the past there have been different ‘traditions’ or just different times, there was no excuse for a man to sell a woman. Women have not been created for men to sell. They have the same rights as men to live. What if this was the other way? Like there would be a law where women are allowed to sell men just for money or even fun? Oh yeah, this would never happen because women have no power.
”In medieval Europe, women were denied the right to own property, to study, or to participate in public life”
Here’s where education makes an appearance and this is how it all starts. If women are not allowed to have an education or study, it is obvious that women’s power will never grow and they will never be able to show the abilities they are capable of. Whereas men, by law, are allowed to study and get an education and still, believe that they have the right to sell their wives. Um no. That is not called getting an education. In addition to this, women are not allowed to own a property. This is still related to education because buying a house is not something you do by snapping your fingers. You need to be able to negotiate and if women don’t have the right to study, maths for this example of buying a house, how are they going to be able to buy a house and learn the benefits of buying one. In school, they might not teach the benefits of buying a house, however you still get to interact with people and discuss what the benefits could bring you, this coming from people’s opinion.
Feminism in media:
Media includes encompasses art, news, educational content and numerous other forms of information. It has an importance of transmitting a message you want to share with the rest of the world.
Media is an important role in feminism as it can be positive or negative news which include news about women doing admirable things, such as stand up for women who are less confident to speak up for themselves, or they can also do things less comfortable with the rest of the population, but it doesn’t always mean that what is written on media (magazines, news reports) is necessarily true.
Obviously, if the media writes about women’s issues often, people will start believing that women are actually not that strong which makes them appear underestimated. The underestimation of women in media has started to decrease over the years. It all started with the ‘3 waves’. 1st wave had the purpose to gather women together and gain the right to vote, which they did. The 2nd wave was to get equal rights and laws as men. They didn’t succeed. And the last wave is a continuation of the 2nd wave and today is still debatable and discussed as women still fight to win.
Another issue not covered by newspapers is the accomplishments of women. Throughout the years, women have accomplished a lot, such as earning the right to vote, they joined campaigns to support marriage equality and many more. But that was not the all over the internet.
Many people believe that once considered a feminist, the negative stereotypes are automatically included, which is true. But if you didn’t receive negative comments, how else would you be motivated to prove them wrong?
And celebrities are a big part of the influence of feminism because celebrities have fans and fans look up to them. However, looking up to someone doesn’t necessarily mean that they always do the right thing. Some celebrities take advantage of fame and create negativity to prove that they have power and they can their little ‘army’ of fans, which helps them create rivalry between people.
Feminism is often associated to man-hating which is why feminism is seen as a big issue. That is why women haven’t been shown in newspapers doing admirable things. Men didn’t agree to women being seen more powerful than them. Even today, there are some industries where women would not be doing certain jobs and not because they don’t want to, it’s because they would not risk to put themselves in that much of danger. It is no stereotyping. It is true that women are not able to do certain jobs, such as constructions, and it is also true that there are certain jobs men cannot do, such as taking care f a baby on their own. And I’m not necessarily implying that men can’t take care of babies on their own, but it is simply more natural for women as they would probably be better at knowing what to do.
Women in music videos:
This is also one thing that brought female population down. There would be music videos where women would be criticised for flushing their bodies and barely dressed.
According to Entity Mag, this has been a misunderstanding of female sexuality, as the population believe that women are supposed to cover themselves because they should be an example for the rest of the female population.
Throughout the years, women have appeared in music videos less dressed.
Here is an example of a music video:
From my perspective, the lyrics are implying that men can get anything with money, including women which is quite disturbing for some of the audience, especially when most of the audience is young people. It sets an example that if you have money, you can buy everything including women.
Also, women are dressed in a way which makes it easier for some of the audience to criticise them and causes conflict, as in it makes people think that women stand up for feminism and in the same time they barely wear pieces of clothing. This sends me to the next issue, which is feminism affecting women.
Feminism affecting women:
Some people would often confuse feminism with man-hating, whereas feminism is a form of gathering people together to give women same rights as men and do what they have to do to create fairness.
The future representation of female:
References:
https://mic.com/articles/87809/23-ways-feminists-have-made-the-world-better-for-women#.W872nBFHh
https://storify.com/walshg/media-and-feminism
https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism
https://www.entitymag.com/women-music-videos-self-objectifying-objectively-empowering/