|
If
it's any comfort, you are not
alone in your frustration with
women who reap all of the benefits
of feminism without acknowledging
it's importance in our lives.
In America, this phenomenon
is often referred to as the
"I'm not a feminist, but.....I
believe in equal pay, that women
should be free from all forms
of violence, that men should
take more responsibility for
the work done in the home......"
In fact, this is such a problem
that I just wrote something
that I hope will combat this--which
is a piece called "A Day Without
Feminism"--which tries to pretend
that feminism never happened
and therefore our lives were
absent of any of the gains that
is has brought. (This is gains
for men and women--since that
is the intended purpose of feminism,
though often not the interpretation.)
The piece I did was specific
to the United States, but perhaps
you wanted to try to construct
a similar thing for your country--and
therefore, have it easily accessible
the next time someone frustrates
you with their lack of knowledge
for what feminism has brough
them. One of the many unfortunate
consequences from this denial
is that people then go along
thinking that everything is
fine and the world is equal--until
all of a sudden, they want to
start their own business and
there are no resources, they
want to have an abortion and
can't, they want to pursue a
given profession or get a raise
or a promotion and they can't--then
the only place they can turn
is to feminism.
So the best thing to do is to
alert people to potential--not
pie in the sky, but likely--things
to come up in their life and
ask them what they would do
then?
Do these suggestions help? I
know that this isn't a definitive
answer, but that's only because
there is no definitive answer.
It's really just a part of the
on-going dialogue that we must
have in order to have everyone's
consciousness raised. Good luck
raising those consciousnesses.
—Amy
|
