Feminist Identity - Term Paper Example

? Identity-Feminist Paper A feminist is one who advocates for political, social, economic and legal rights for women to be equal to those of men. Over the past centuries, women have always been the oppressed in the society and lived miserable lives under men. Since the introduction of education, changes in the way people view women in the society started to change as women started to empower themselves. Women started doing things that men had disapproved them from doing and did them as good as their men counterparts did. Usually, the fear of unknown if women replaced men in the works they did, somehow brings about a difference between genders. Women empowerment is a great weapon from women to become independent from the oppression they have been from men (Kimmel, Amy & Kaler 2). With the mushrooming up of many gender activists and governments support, women became to get empowered and achieved their dreams. In a society that is gender based, fighting for the rights of women to be equal to that of men is really a hard task, but something still has be done. Therefore, any person who supports the rights of women in the society is usually a feminist. In this present generation, with much confusion originating from the aspect gender, still there is need for the minority and the oppressed gender to be given their rightful place in the society. It is high time women came up and proved themselves, but in order to reach there, much fighting for their rights have to be done. Recent researches have shown that there exist little difference between man and woman and hence there is no need for gender inequality to exist. Today, gender being a very sensitive issue due to occurrence of gender based violence in most countries; careful attention has to be accorded to the empowerment of women (Kimmel, Amy & Kaler, 2). Gender on the other hand is defined as the relations between women and men, and can be both material and perpetual. In the past, people used to confuse gender as a tern that used to refer to women and men based on their sexual characteristics, but Holler and Miller try to give it another perspective from which to view gender. Emphasis is usually made on gender not to be determined biologically due to sexual characteristics of women and men like in the old times, but nowadays constructed from the social perspective. Society being the place where gender lays means it plays a key role in influencing gender. These two authors tried very much to show the relationship between gender and the society and how the two are linked too. Gender is regarded as a vital organizing principle of societies and sometimes governs the process of reproduction and production, distribution and also consumption. Despite this definition, most people associate gender with women. This is not the case since gender addresses issues dealing with women, relationships between women and men, their roles, control and access of resources, labour division, needs and interests. Living in such times where the true meaning is not understood by many, much efforts will be needed in case of fighting for women rights. In a country constantly being struck by news concerning gender based violence, denotes the need to be more careful and sensitive while dealing with issues regarding women empowerment (Holler & Kimmel 24). From an analytical angle, Holler and Kimmel tried to not to be biased while speaking about gender like many people do. By introducing the feminist theory in their writing, proved to be feminists. These authors are more concerned about changing the past notion in which gender was viewed and try to replace it with their current concept. It seems that these two authors were after changing people’s minds on how they handle the aspect of gender in the society plus add more concerning gender inequality (Kimmel, Amy & Kaler 20). There has always been an issue of gender inequality in many societies over the past decades. Gender inequality denotes the disparity between people because of gender. Gender systems are often hierarchical and dichotomous; a binary gender system usually reflects on the inequalities that exist in our daily life (Holler & Kimmel 36). Gender inequality emanates from distinctions, whether socially constructed or empirically grounded. In a society where gender inequality is still strongly rooted, measures have to implement to reduce this. Such can be achieved by empowering women plus educating men and the rest of the society about the need to empower and respect women rights. Living in such an era, gender inequality is not supposed to be an issue of the present as many elite men exist and realize the importance of women empowerment. Kimmel in his book criticize gender beliefs in society. He generally finds great similarities between women and men despite known notion of gender. Kimmel argues that the differences among women or among men are not as vast as between women and men, and adds that gender differences result due to gender inequality, and not the reverse. Using a social constructionist perspective, he further argues that gender inequality and gender difference are not inevitable in society; the differences exist due to variables in social situation or position. He also explains how gender inequality can be used to lay ground for presumptions of gender variations (Holler & Kimmel 39). Feminist theory is like an extension of feminism into philosophical or theoretical discourse, and aims at understanding the nature of gender inequality. This theory also examines the social roles of women and some of the lived experience, feminist politics in fields such as sociology, anthropology, economics, communication, education, psychoanalysis, literary criticism, and philosophy. In as much as feminist theory provides a critique of social relations, it also focuses on analyzing inequalities in gender and also promotes women’s rights, issues and interest. Themes commonly explored in feminism include contemporary art, art history , aesthetics, stereotyping, discrimination, objectification, patriarchy and oppression, and patriarchy. Feminism is usually a collection of movements aimed at establishing, defining, and defending equal economic, political, and social rights and women equal opportunities for women. Feminism concepts tend to overlap with rights of women. Though feminism mainly focuses on issues dealing with women, sometimes, argue that liberation of men is also a necessary part of feminism, also since men can be harmed by gender roles and sexism. Feminists are hence people whose behavior and beliefs are entirely based on feminism. Feminist activists have constantly been campaigning for the rights of women. They have campaigned for rights of women such as right to own property, to make contracts, to own properties, and at the same time also promoting their rights to autonomy, reproductive rights and bodily integrity. Feminists have in the past opposed sexual harassment, domestic violence and sexual assaults. In economics, they have also advocated for rights in workplaces, including equal opportunities and pay for careers. Female activists general try to fight for the rights of women in the society who are oppressed and try to air their grievances, at the same time giving women an opportunity to express them (Holler & Kimmel 63). In conclusion, women in the society ought not to be oppressed, but protected. In this era of the elite, some practices ought to be things of the past, one of them being gender inequality. Feminists need to come together and fight strongly to free the oppressed women in the society plus to ensure they get equal rights to men. In a world where women ever since the beginning of times have constantly been under men, a change needs to be made. Many people, women and men need to be aware about the importance of gender equality in the society plus the world in general. For this vision to be accomplished much effort needs to be focused into the issue of gender inequality and many feminists need to come up to fight for the rights of women. Works Cited Holler, .J., Kimmel, M. The Gendered Society Canadian Edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print Kimmel, Michael, Amy Aronsm and Amy kaler. The Gendered Society Reader, Canada: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print Swatalam, Kristin. The Feminist Theory, 1999. Retrieved from http://www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/ Read More