If a cake is dry and bland the odds of someone wanting the cake over other cakes is low, but if the cake has moisture and a solid texture on top of the taste then many would be more inclined to get said cake. When it comes to the ideal execution of feminism, it is not executed in a respectful manner. Fourth wave compared to feminism in the 1960s and 1970s is similar to comparing stepping on sharp rocks to smooth rocks, it is painful. Back then movements were not as violent and the ones apart of the movement were not aggressive either. Feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes, it should not be taken as wanting to be better than the other gender. They way its portrayed in ads and is forced upon the younger audiences makes it to where children are more inclined to be annoyed by it and not care, then soak it in and reflect on it. Feminism should be about gender equality as a whole and not about personal grudges, hate with men as a whole. Over the years feminism has become more of a punching bag for people who are not radicals to make fun of instead of trying to come to terms with women who just want to be respected. Early on feminism was about larger topics like laws and rights that men had to affect them, such as being able to work and vote, that they would need to be able to have a voice that mattered in their country. Instead of following those methods and ideals, modern day feminist are using others, trans gendered women with their own issues, for their own personal gain. Modern day feminism focuses on gaining respect and personal gains, issues that even men suffer, instead of things that are super specific to women that deserve to be highlighted. Feminism itself is not the issue, but rather how complicated and messy fourth wave feminism is. The issues with Modern feminism breaks down into three main issues: execution, image, and reason.
When it comes to modern day feminism it’s hard to understand what’s being fought for.
“In the 1960s and 70s, feminist protests resulted in a series of laws that guaranteed, under the law, equal rights in the workplace, in universities and colleges, in health care, and in the home.”Back in the 1900s, what women were fighting for was to have an impact in the world and to mean something in their country. Instead of staying at home letting other people control their lives they wanted to have their opinions mean something, this resolve made the women’s rights movement accomplish many things. Nowadays there are more important issues at hand than being respected. All of the major issues for women has been taken care of, all it is a matter of now is execution. Protesting isn’t giving them the attention they want nor the outcome, if they want something then they should work towards it. The past generation has already built them a base and has given materials to build up off their success.
Issues today, for women, compared to in the 1900s are dramatically different. Everything in the past that has been fought for has been obtained. When it comes to being disrespected my a man in the workforce or treated differently because you are a woman it becomes more of a respect issue than a major issue. Striving to be respected is completely different from wanting to vote, wanting to be a part of the workforce, being able to have an impact, and get a good education.
Another reason why modern day feminism is bad is due to the image it has. When the word feminist is used on social media it is used as an insulting term. This is due to them treating men bad or talking about men in a harsh way, nothing near equal. Author Cathy Young wrote an article for the Washington Post on how modern feminist treat men poorly. “Feminist male-bashing has come to sound like a cliche — a misogynist caricature. Feminism, its loudest proponents vow, is about fighting for equality. The man-hating label is either a smear or a misunderstanding.” In this article she points out many key reasons why it is hard for people to look at feminism with respect nowadays due to the disrespect they show anything to do with men. When being a “feminist” the goal should be to strive for equality and to exist on the same level. Fourth-wave feminism, by far, does not fully follow what feminism was created for. The overall goal has seemed to change after every generation. Women who are tarnishing the name of feminism take these attitudes and grudges against men into relationships, work, and into their everyday life. Having this “attitude” that Cathy is referring to in her article is giving feminism a bad name and making it hard for men to want to listen, to want to understand and join the movement to strive for equality. Instead of grouping the feminist who care about the movement from the others she reffers to them as radicalist. Radicalism are the beliefs or actions of people who advocate thorough or complete political or social reform. These radicals have started to use the word “man” as a derogatory term and using it to explain things men do, such as “mansplaining,” “manspreading” and “manterrupting.”
Many would say that women already have equal rights, and to a certain degree that is correct. In a perfect world they do have one, but in our society today no one has equal rights. No gender nor race has equal rights. “Second-wave feminist views on transgender people were often hostile, decrying trans women as 'invaders' of 'female' spaces” Although this defending phrase is pulled from wikipedia, it stands as a very true statement on the argument on trans women are not real women and should they be used as an argument for feminist. A huge part of it are the terms that are used by trans women and the energy from both sides targeted to one another. Trans people use the word ‘cis” or “cisgender” to reffer to people born into a gender instead of choosing to be said gender. Using the terms of trans women, feminism is more of a cis issue. For a counter argument and article read, “Women do not have equal rights due to the existence of trans women not being able to go to the correct bathroom in a public place nor do they have constitutional rights to avoid discrimination.” Trans gender people, as a whole, have their own problems which are larger than a feminist. Women as a collective body have obtained laws and many other things for themselves. Trans rights and women’s rights are not equal nor are they similar. Yes a trans women can also partake in women’s rights, but the rights of a trans gender person only affects trans gender women. Cis women are using the new issues of trans women to futher their arguments and ignorance and it isn’t fair for them to use them as fuel to their flame, all it does is draw a bad name for the trans gender people who want to avoid these arguements and not be bothered by the media that has been corrupted by feminsit and be seen as a problem.
On the topic of gaining constitutional rights to avoid discrimination, no one has obtained these rights before so what would make women a special case. Terms of disrespect are more of a personal problem and the problem of the overseer of their workplace to handle and make proper adjustments to the rules. Making terms of respecting one another a constitutional problem would be more of a violation of everyone’s “freedom of speech”. Forced respect will gain women nothing and it will ultimately help them achieve the opposite of what they would like to obtain, disrespect. If feminist want respect and to be treated “equal” then they need to follow the older generations methods that were peaceful and respectful to the other genders and not use others as a fuel to their flame for their own benefit.
