Women Against Feminism Ida, The Cherwell School Edited by Onika and Macrina A new trend across social media started back in summer 2014 – “Women Against Feminism”. Perhaps sparked off by the rather undereducated comments made by a certain celebrity in May earlier that year, this trend calls for (mostly) young women to pose for a picture holding a card which states a reason as to why they “supposedly” do not “need feminism”. Though I may not have done much for it, I would define myself as a “soft-core” feminist, and this subject frustrates me very much. I think there are a lot of misconceptions about feminism – made by both “feminists” and “anti-feminists” alike. What is feminism? A simple dictionary search of the term gets us the definition: “The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes” This simple definition allows is enough to nullify the arguments put forward by the campaigners of “#womenagainstfeminism”. True feminism is not about taking things for women at the expense of men... It is not about becoming men, becoming all the same, or having blame taken away from women for things they do. Often people misunderstand what gender equality means. When we say gender equality, we do not mean that women and men both dress the same, eat the same, act the same or do the same things. Gender equality is about both sexes having equal rights and opportunities. It is about nor being degraded because of your gender. It is, perhaps the first step in egalitarianism, for if we are striving for universal equality for equal rights and opportunity, than where better to start than empowering the gender that has been disempowered for centuries? These alleged “anti-feminists” are fighting against their own rights. They are degrading their own gender, and in the process degrading themselves with their ignorance in the eyes of anyone who have their wits about them. For years and years, women have been campaigning for their own rights. It takes less than 5 minutes to write a seemingly witty message on a piece of paper (often with plenty of grammar and spelling mistakes) and pose with it. There have been those who have dedicated their whole lives to the advocacy of women’s rights. If you have no respect for feminism, then at least have the decency to honour those who were willing to die for what they believed in, by actually doing the research and coming up with a legitimate argument. Because if one was truly an anti-feminist, than one would have to ask to be treated like cattle, refuse a payment higher than a male co-worker, not give an opinion any subject, live and die never doing anything the dominant male in their life didn’t order them to do. We must also differentiate the so-called “extreme feminists” or “feminazis” from the true feminists. Real feminism is about equality political, economic, cultural, personal, and social equality to men. The true feminist does not hate.