By: Zoe Melnyk
Somehow, along the way, society lost the meaning of what it really means to be a feminist.
Just mentioning the word feminism will either send everyone into an uncomfortable silence or a lecture about “feminazis” hating on men.
In a poll from The Huffington Post, only 20% of Americans identify as feminists, yet 82% believe in equality amongst men and women.
That’s a little troubling, considering the definition of feminism is, “the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.”
Roxane Gay, the author of Bad Feminist, opened up a new perspective on feminism that may finally allow women, and men, to identify as feminists without being ostracized or labeled as a lunatic.
She points out in her novel, and in her TED talk attached below, that feminism is confined into such a small box of assumptions that it leaves no room for error and apparently no room for minority women.
Gay brings up that perhaps the ideal of a perfect feminist does not exist and that a woman should be able to identify as anything she wants, flaws and all.
Well, that’s the whole point, isn’t it? There is no ideal woman and there is no ideal feminist.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxt_MZKMdes]
