Feminism: Why the Bad Rep?
/I remember sitting in my introductory course to social science and the class being asked to raise our hands if we believed in feminism. I honestly had no idea what the term really meant in great detail. I knew it referred to women rights. In my head I knew my answer was yes, but I saw as all my classmates kept their hands down. Just by looking through the class, I noticed that women outnumbered the men largely, in a class of about 50 students. I decided to keep my hands down. I was very shy and was too nervous to even share my answer in the class. It was my first year of University and I already felt immense fear of imposter syndrome. I was the first girl in my household to attend University and I had no idea what I was doing.
My Professor, asked again: do you believe in equality between men and women? Everyone this time raised their hand, he smiled as said: then you are all feminists. A girl sitting to me in the class raised her hand to challenge his statement.
“No it’s not that simple Professor. Feminists are angry and man-hating radicals” she said.
To be honest, I understood a bit of what she meant. When I thought of feminist the first image that came to my mind was pop singers. One of my favorite childhood singers Alanis Morissette was a feminist icon. Her anger screaming over guitar riffs and drums singing “you outta know” came to my mind. I was also familiar with the famous five which included: Emily Murphy, Irene Marryat Parlby, Nellie Mooney McClung, Louise Crummy McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards. I did a small project on them in 8th grade. Madonna also came to my mind and of course Michelle Obama.
It was fall of 2008 and the buzz surrounding the Obamas was everywhere. Michelle Obama represented feminism, but she wasn’t angry despite the claims of the media, she was a feminist, at least I thought she was. I knew she was a hardworking Harvard educated women.
My Professor began giving us an introductory lesson on feminism and by the end of that course, I became introduced to what feminism truly meant and it’s long history. It’s been 12 years since then, and I still struggle with the complicated nature of the history of feminism.
Where are the women of colour?
In the 2000s, there was a wave of images of Muslim men and women. The image of women wearing burkas in Afghanistan was very common during news coverage of the War on Terror. Wearing a hijab, myself at the time, I asked my mom why were they wearing that. All the Muslim women I saw never wore burkhas. I would see some wearing long hijabs called Jilabab in the Somali community. I also asked my Islam teacher, who was from Egypt. Both my mom and my teacher told me it was optional for women to wear that but not required.
Still the media kept repeating these women were oppressed. There began the Muslim are oppressed narrative, suddenly I was asked for the first time in my life: do your parents force you to wear hijab? I was suddenly oppressed with evil parents overnight.
Of course none of these ideas were true but I did not know how to answer these questions since, I was never asked about them before. Prior to 9/11, my classmates would ask me why I wore a hijab. I told them God told us to wear it, to be honest I had no idea. I just liked the idea of not styling my hair every morning. I had thick set of curly hair and I would routinely cry when my mom would force me to sit between her legs and comb it out. Under the hijab I didn’t have to braid my hair, I would comb it into a bun and off I go.
My non-Muslim friends at school would go with me to the washroom to see my hair. They were shocked to see I actually had long curly locks under my hijab. They would ask to see it frequently, in the girls changing room during gym. On special occasions, like graduations or dances, I was allowed to style my hair and wear it out. This was something I looked forward to. Some of the other girls had more of love hate relationship with their hijab. So they would “transform” at school and wear their hair and put the hijab back on during the walk home. I was never a fussy type of girl and I didn’t really mind at all wearing it. I enjoyed wearing my hijab, even in the summer when the sweat would pour on my forehead. I would still wear my hijab along with shorts and sandals. Which, according to Islam defeats the purpose of modesty. Wearing shorts was a no-go, but for me it was practice, so it was okay to wear it with shorts or pants. My parents didn’t even seem to mind at all. This was in the 90s before 9/11.
9/11 changed the Somali community in many ways. It also changed my views on feminism.
“Intersectionality” my Professor wrote the word on the board. This was the winter session of my Black Feminist Thought class in graduate school. My Professor, a Black feminist scholar, began introducing my classmates and I to this concept. Prior to taking this course, much of the feminism I was introduced were feminist waves, the struggle to vote, and the struggle for other rights. Most of the feminists I studied were White women.
As a Muslim Black woman and more importantly, a refugee, my idea of feminism and the struggle for women rights has been long been complicated.
So I ask. Why does feminism get a bad reputation? Why the hateful stereotypes?
Feminism does not and will not include voices from all women across the world.
Feminism seems to be focused on the sameness between the genders
There is much still needed to improve women’s rights across the globe
Reasons Why Feminism is Important:
Women still face inequality, sexual harassment, violence, and lack of power/representation
While there are many just criticisms of mainstream feminism, choosing to ignore the injustice women face globally, is deplorable. For anyone to pretend that we have arrived at a utopian destination where women are paid the same wages, do not face any domestic violence, are not victims, and are overall living good a good quality of life, is in denial. I can say wholeheartedly that I am a feminist because I believe in human rights.
XOXO
Shukri
