Feminism is often looked upon as a new trend, while it has existed from the period of ancient Greece. There are profuse controversies when it comes to feminism, modern feminism, and pseudo feminism. This article aims to spotlight the stark difference and to talk about the current situation of misunderstanding regarding the entire concept.
All over the world, some women set the ball rolling, different methods and different agendas united by the same spirit in light of a common goal. The women of our history had instigated a movement that was very much and is necessary, but in the present generation, the point has been twisted and turned. The gender gap that needed to be closed has only widened, we brought in more division than unity. More problems than solutions.
Modern feminism has its flaws, and two main categories that people find it hard to differentiate between are, feminism and pseudo feminism.
What is true feminism?
Feminism is the equality of both sexes with emphasis on women’s rights, as women are and have been extensively oppressed. Feminism looks at empowering women to get them on par with men. The women strive for equal rights, equal opportunities and to discard the gender gap. This is the ideal feminism that we all need and talk about, but is this the feminism we are striving to achieve? Many strive to achieve the latter but many feminists have jumped up the ladder demanding for supremacy while fighting for equality, hence introducing a new term ‘pseudo feminism’.
Pseudo feminism is basically an extremist idea that has crossed boundaries. It talks about empowering women but ends up violating basic ethics. From bringing down the opposite gender by calling them atrocious names, the entire idea of feminism was lost somewhere between these Femi Nazis.
Who are the mainstream pseudo feminists? None other than social media influencers, as obvious as it seems they play a huge part that we rarely expose. We feed them and we fuel them. They constantly influence young minds and the complication is that they’re delivering a biased narrative. An influencer in any position exploits his/her power and this is at the cost of the people, who are not aware. Their ideals have surpassed equity and have gone to suppress and talk trash on men.
These influencers have received equal backlash from true feminists and a part of the opposite gender. They believe that the word feminism should not need distinguishing as it stands for equality and that should not be compromised by the people through division. At the same time, while the opposition influencers try to get feminism back on track, they dip no less in their extremist behaviour.
The opposition influencers have gone to extents of boycotting them with unacceptable behaviour. They have taken for granted their power to express openly, and have turned patronising. They have an avenging mindset, hence allowing mansplaining to thrive. But again, there are several instances where women falsely frame accusations against men for mansplaining and patronising. This makes it very hard for people to understand and pick a side, as both sides are faulty and there are barely anyone leading a centre stand. This has been turning into a war between the two genders, with very few focusing on the actual problem.
People have taken advantage of pseudo feminism and disregard actual feminism. and on the other hand , pseudo feminists have selective activism and that stands against men and only men.
On average women earn around 30% lesser wages than men, extensive descrimination in healthcare access and employment. At the same time Andhra Pradesh jails have decided to release women prisoners who had life sentences on the mere fact that they are women. when there is such hypocrisy thriving what is equality and how do we achieve it?
The idea of feminism is in shatters, people are aimlessly playing a blame game on the basis of gender, with no view of the future. There are no active steps being taken on a large scale for the minor issues that lead to larger problems.
Not only is the gender divide increasing, there is hate and chaos blazing in between. It is time we take steps to educate people, the need for feminism is real and hypocrites cannot be generalised into the category of feminism.
We’ve come a long way trying to bring change, and we are the ones going backward. We are letting gender increase vengeance. There is no other time like now, the need for unity for empowerment is of utmost importance. If we don’t start who will?