The first time I asked myself if I was a feminist

(Definition of “feminism” from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

 

I am aware that feminism has existed long before the suffragette movement and that a lot of women have been KICKING ASS in a lot of domains despite the patriarchic mentalities of the past. What I did not know, was that it was still a big deal in the 21^st century.

A couple of years ago I saw it being brought up more in the media and promoted by amazing women like Beyoncé, Emma Watson, Serena Williams, Helen Mirren and many more. They were all saying that they were proud to be FEMINISTS.

So?

That was my first thought.

Why do these women state the obvious? Yeah, ok. You’re a feminist, I’m a feminist, all women are feminists. Don’t we have other stuff to talk about?

It was after a couple of months that I realized what the big fuss was about.

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I was born and raised in Romania, a country that had lived for over 40 years under communists before it turned into a democracy in 1989.

Now, I am not going to thank solely the communists for promoting a version of feminism in our country, because women have been working side by side with men since long before that. But it helped to nurture a mentality that promoted equal rights for women. They could study, work, vote, lead. They could do basically whatever they wanted – as long as they were supporting the party.

My grandmother, my mother, myself and my sister have never felt that we have been gender-discriminated against. We are all strong women and have experienced more success than the previous generation. My grandmother, unlike her mother in the early 1900s, went to school and went on to lead a team of workers in a factory. My mother was the first in her whole family to be accepted to study at a university. Me and my sister got the chance to travel the world and do things our mother couldn’t even dream of at our age.

So I was born in a society with a quite feminist-friendly mentality.

That was my privilege.

Of course other women did not share my luck and were born in countries where they are treated like second-hand citizens. They have the right to stand up for their rights. They NEED feminism.

So why does Emma Watson and other amazing ladies think we need feminism in CIVILIZED EUROPE/USA?

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Am I a feminist?

I am – by default. I was one even before I knew what the word meant.

All women are – right? Which woman would be against feminism?

Turns out, there are plenty of women out there, in the WESTERN, CIVILIZED WORLD, that are anti-feminists.

And I was like: What? Hold up. What!?

To get an answer to my baffled WHAT!? I did some research, and my brain almost exploded when it was confronted with the most idiotic and illogic theories.

I will talk more about anti-feminism and why I believe it exists in another article (here – coming soon), because it is not the purpose of today’s story.

So the amazing women I mentioned before had a point. We need to be feminists, TODAY. Feminism is still being threatened and I am joining the ranks to keep promoting it and defending it. (check out my experiment on double standards – coming soon)

I am a feminist and I, just as the definition at the beginning of this article implies, fight against all sorts of discrimination because I believe FREEDOM is for every human on this planet.

Growing up in democratic Romania I thought FREEDOM was a given. For years I took it for granted. I could say that I was selfish, even though I did not know that I was doing it. Munroe Bergdorf was right – you cannot say that you do not discriminate if you do not do anything about the unfairness in the world.

I am a feminist and I am trying to make the world a better place through my actions and my writing.

I hope my readers feel and do the same. We need to work together to make OUR world a better place for everybody.

 

L.