Gather round, boys and girls. Today, we’re talking about Feminism, feminists and stupid questions.
After decades of maintaining (and enjoying) the status quo, it seems the world is finally acknowledging how society has been unfair to the female gender.
Let’s take our society for instance.
The average Nigerian girl is raised to be a mother and little else. As a child, she often has to prove she’s as deserving as her male counterparts to even get a shot at anything. As an adult, more often than not, she becomes her partner’s side-kick and spends her prime years tending to her family.
All of her life, she is made to feel like an accessory to her male peers and treated as such.
Feminism is seeking to change all that.
That’s why it’s one of the biggest social movements of the last few decades. Simply, it’s an ongoing campaign for women to be seen as equal. Feminists are asking for one simple thing; that women are given equal footing and opportunity, with no recourse to their gender.
But as you would expect, people have reacted in different ways.
There are those who insist that today’s women are just spoilt brats who are complaining about the same things their mothers handled happily.
The people we want to talk about are those who are standing by the door – waiting for a nice, God-fearing feminist to explain what’s going on to them. They swear they would be feminists too, only if someone could just explain exactly how they’ve contributed to the status quo.
But do Feminists really need to explain anything to you?
The simple answer is NO.
Here’s why – To start with, you’re part of the problem
If you’re a man who breathes air and eats food, you contribute to and benefit from the problem.
How? You ask.
Odds are, growing up, no one ever told you to leave your books to join mummy in the kitchen so you could be a good wife.
You probably weren’t raised as if your role as a human is to bear children and raise a family.
And if we’re being serious, no-one has ever accused you of using runs money to buy your new phone.
If anyone should understand the system and how it benefits men; it’s you.
Or you’re just too lazy to task your brain.
Saying you need someone to explain feminism to you feels like plain mental laziness. It’s like saying you don’t understand why bad hygiene is a problem. So you’re going to continue soiling your trousers until the Minister of Health comes to explain hygiene to you.
Simply, it’s not a valid excuse. Feminism isn’t exactly rocket science.
But… there’s a BUT.
Is it possible to understand where these guys are coming from? The ones with their hands spread out, waiting for an explanation.
We can’t deny that there’s yet a long way to go, but in recent times, the campaign for women’s rights has been overtaken by a lot of… other things.
Frankly, it’s all very confusing and exhausting.
Terms like “Man-splaining” and patriarchy itself have become overused to the extent that they now only dilute the message.
Also, while feminism tries to draw attention to gender inequality, some funny people are hiding under its canopy to spread misandry – an ingrained prejudice against men.
What is this moral lesson in all of this?
What all of this means is that Feminism, in its purest form, is getting lost in the sauce. And that serves no one well.
The truth is that a world where men and women are treated equally, with equal access to opportunity and balance in responsibility, is better for everyone.
Maybe that’s why we need to talk about it more. Maybe, just maybe, we need to explain to those who want to understand but don’t.
