Define 'Feminism' 


"For the record – Feminism by definition is: “The belief that men and women should have equal rights and
opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes”. "

             -Emma Watson (HeForShe Campaign Launching Event 2014)

I, for one, have been asked a million of times either by my peers or random people to define 'Feminism'.  Over time, I notice how my definition of "feminism" gradually changes. It went from being "an ideology that supports acts of women-loving" to "an ideology that supports the acts of both men and women-loving. In general, equality." Often times, I would get positive responses. While others just love to challenge. Don't get me wrong, I love challenges. It only makes my belief in feminism stronger. 

One time, a girl said to me, "feminism is not asking for equality in the society. It's more like men-hating." I have lost count of how many times I have heard this undoubtedly false saying. Feminists who claim feminism as "men-hating" are not true feminists- or shall I say feminists who lack knowledge and humanity. I tried by best explaining to her about how we raise awareness for both men and women in our campaigns; for instance, HeForShe promotes freedom for both sexes. Freedom from judgment, stereotypes, cultural expectations, etc. When all else failed, she still refused to understand the whole concept of Feminism, I gave her a simple Math equation. I said, "Okay. Let's say we have X and Y are two different values. Right now, Y has slightly more value than X in certain cultures. What we want is for X and Y to be equal, but did we ever say that we would take out from Y in order to add onto X to make it equal? No. We never said that. We do not demand lesser of anything. Y can stay as they are; what we want though, is for X to be added with whatever's needed to make it the same value as Y." She never dared to ask me again ever since.

Miss Watson asked a great question in her speech, "why has feminism become such an uncomfortable word?" For women like Emma and I, it is not, for we believe too firmly to be afraid to declare ourselves people who fight to change, to ask for what is right. Others might just be out there wondering, maybe also complaining about being called "girly" and being paid less, but never thought of taking on action. I don't blame these people, maybe they just have not came across the thought of doing something, or maybe they are under oppression. Whatever it is, it's time to act- join the other brave ladies. While these people are still "educable," other women are just being too ignorant to Feminism. More than that, they are just "ashamed" of the act. They claim that it is selfish and inhumane. I am not targeting anyone, but we all have to admit that there are people out there who denies to know, understand and consider. All we, feminists, could do is try our best to reach out and explain to them how the issues (involving feminism) are affecting them. Maybe by then they would reconsider their ideas.

To sum up, feminism is defined in many different ways depending on who you are and what side you are on. Some definitions are legitimate and acceptably right while others are simply false accusations of what Feminism really is. Feminism is not meant to be bad. I am sure every activists- Hilary Clinton, Emma Watson, etc- has made this clear.


"If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists I spoke of earlier. And for this I applaud you. We are struggling for a uniting word but the good news is we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe. I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen to speak up; to be the ‘he for she’ - and to ask yourself if not me, who, if not, now when. "  - Emma Watson



Read the full speech here: http://www.heforshe.org/EmmaWatsonSpeech.pdf