As y’all might have noticed, I no longer blog every single Friday on feminist issues. Writing a weekly post on feminism started to burn me out. However, I still plan to continue writing a few feminist blog posts every month. Plus my weekly newsletter, Friday’s The F-Word, has re-launched!
2017 is still new and shiny, a year filled with hope and possibility. Looking at the feminist work still to be done, I want to reflect on a few reasons why I’m a feminist.
Related: 10 Reasons Why I’m a Feminist
Why I’m a Feminist
- While Americans have gotten better about telling girls they can do anything boys can do, we’re not as quick to tell boys they can do anything girls can do. Why shouldn’t boys paint their nails? Why shouldn’t men work as nurses or teachers? From Anne Thériault, “The message that we consistently send out is that in order to achieve any kind of significant career goals, girls need to adopt traits that are typically associated with masculinity… The flip side of all of this is that we shame any boys (and, to a certain extent, girls) who participate in activities or behaviors that are seen as being more ‘feminine.'” One of the reasons I love the film Legally Blonde is because Elle Woods is smart, hard-working, and loyal… all in fabulous pink clothing. Just like we shouldn’t force girls into pink stereotypes, we shouldn’t devalue traditional femininity.
- I’m tired of people allowing misogynists to define feminism. Maybe try listening to what feminists actually say before dismissing us all as man-haters?
- The next U.S. president openly bragged about sexually assaulting women. Need I say more? Yes? Fine. What I find almost worse are all the people tripping over themselves to excuse his comments as “locker room talk.” Ladies, if you honestly think that “all men” talk that way, I genuinely pity you. I can’t imagine living my life surrounded by would-be rapists. For the record, contrary to misogynistic belief, feminists don’t actually think all men are rapists… But rapists do think that.
- Some people STILL send mail addressed to “Brita Fleck.” Newsflash: that person does not exist. At all. Anywhere. My name is Brita Long. My name has always been Brita Long, and it always will be Brita Long.
- Medical gender bias continues to be a problem. Ten years ago, I learned that heart attacks can present different symptoms for women than for men. Why don’t all doctors know this too? From a 2013 article on women’s heart disease, “Women under 50 years old who have a heart attack related to heart disease are twice as likely as men to die.” Women receive lifesaving medications and therapies less often than men do. Women also wait longer to receive treatment. Medical gender bias poses a greater problem than just treatment for heart disease. Gender bias exists in the ER. Doctors also routinely dismiss women’s physical pain as mental illness.
Related: 5 More Reasons Why I’m a Feminist
These are just a few reasons why I’m a feminist.
What about you? Are you a feminist? Why or why not?
Your last point reminded me about a news article that I read a while ago and basically the scientist they interviewed admitted that technically they have no idea how medicines work on women until they’ve been approved because they prefer to have men at the human study trial because women have a complex hormone system(ie. Out period). To me that’s frightening because women also seem to present with more side effects from a drug. I’ll try and find the article.
Off the top of my head, I’d say that it’s only been since about 1990 that women started to be included regularly in drug trials. Which is just mind boggling.
A friend of mine also did not adopt her husband’s last name when they married, for a few reasons. 1) Her husband’s last name has multiple consonants, including a z, mushed together while her last name only has three letters. 2) She is an accomplished professional with multiple high-profile projects to HER name. and 3) She had no desire to change her last name just because she married the man she loves. Unfortunately, not even her own mother in law can get that through her head and after several years, STILL sends mail (including cheques, which can’t even be deposited!) to her with her husband’s last name.
Your last point… I didn’t even know about that and it greatly concerns me.
I am very fortunate not just to have (immediate) in-laws who respect my name, but my brother-in-law’s wife kept her name too.
The silver lining to Crohn’s Disease? Learning self-advocacy at a young age. It sucks having people not taking your pain seriously when you’re just a teen, but now I’m assertive with medical professionals.
There are so many reasons why I am a feminist. I’m tired of people looking at me oddly when I don’t conform to stereotypical roles. I don’t cook, I hate cleaning (although I do it because I’m OCD), I take care of the finances, and I’m financially independent. I don’t default to my husband for decisions and I hate when we are in a store shopping for an appliance for example and I start off the conversation, then the salesman turns to my husband and starts talking to him. Like hello there, I was the one talking to you, not him. It drives me even crazier when I go out for a girls night for dinner & drinks and I’m told “Oh that again? What about your husband, how does he feel about it?” The list goes on and on…
Yeah, my husband and I don’t need each other’s “permission” to see our friends. If either of us wants to spend more than our monthly allowance (which we decided together, as part of our budget), then yeah, we have to discuss that since we share our finances. It’s also considerate to share plans with each other so we can both schedule accordingly, but honestly, we do that with our parents and siblings too! I hate when my husband’s friends ask if I “let” him do something. Um, he’s a grown-ass adult. That didn’t change when he started wearing a ring on his left hand.
Yep, men make great nurses, too! 🙂 And on that note, over Christmas vacation, Angel was actually educating our family about how if a woman has a heart attack, she’s more likely to die from it, and describing how the symptoms are different in women and what they are, how to recognize a heart attack. Also important to not devalue traditional femininity–I certainly consider myself a feminist but I’m also a really, really good cook, keep a nice, hospitable home, I love babies, and I wear a lot of dresses. Just because it’s ‘stereotypical’ to like sparkles or something like that, doesn’t make it wrong.
I loved reading your reasons! This president-elect has me so worried–the whole Time Person of the Year–his thoughts on that scared me!!