Feminism

If you believe in equality regardless of gender, then you're a feminist.

The term feminist has some bad connotations because of the media and some of the more vocal/extreme "feminists". If the person believes that women are superior, that isn't feminism, that's female chauvinism and that's as bad as male chauvinism. Modern media tends to be a bit male dominated, so you get a lot of straw feminists (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StrawFeminist) and incorrect portrayals.

Speaking for myself, some feminist issues include the wage gap between the genders (it still exists), slut shaming (a girls is a slut but a man is a player), issues of rape (the victims are often blamed, not trusted, or ignored; some people don't believe that rape can result in pregnancy; etc), contraceptives and abortions, etc. There are people better qualified to explain/debate it than me, though...

I am a huge advocate for equal rights, having had several doors slammed on my face personally due to my role as a woman and a mother. For example, last year when I was pregnant, the company I worked for asked me to temp at the corporate offices. I went in, did my job and then some, was trained to do a job and then because I was pregnant, I was sent back to my store- while the two other temps I worked with were hired on full time. I knew for a fact that it was because I was pregnant and that they didn't want to deal with my maternity leave at a corporate level. It added insult to injury when the job I was trained to do opened up a position not two weeks later and rather than offering it to me, they gave it to another girl I worked with. Things like that happen a lot to women and its a hard case because you can't "prove" that's the reason, but you know it is.

Since then I've been passed up for a promotion because I'm a mother and not available at the drop of the hat and I've had to watch the company treat my boss equally terrible because they refuse to promote her to the job she's been doing for the past 6 months on top of her other job. It's a sick world we live in when your employers can hold it against you that you're a mother and use excuses like "non-transferable" or "inflexible schedule" as their cover up reasons.

I just believe in equality and being like you are.

Just to give my thoughts to PinkWeeds - I can sympathise with that and have seen it often. I have had no direct experience but where I work there is generally good equality. I must add though it is common nowadays under the current economic climate (although it has probably always been the case) that employers often take the easy route and hire someone who does not show any potential issues! In practice they often get it wrong as it is the applicant who is best at hiding the issues that gets the job. This applies to everyone but a pregnancy is an obvious fact.

It is also my firm conviction that there will never be true equality of the sexes! Stereotypically the mindset of males and females are completely different. For instance, in the same job you could get equal pay but can you really imagine the two sexes thinking through something the same? I have had experience of that happening quite often but equally not. From that would a managers reaction to any issue be the same for male and female employees? I think not in the general case. It is inbuilt into a male to be agressive and a female to be more passive.

I am not a feminist as such but believe in the female (and in opposite balance - male). I hope that's not too confusing.

I'm very happy and proud to identify myself as a feminist and believe that people should not be unfairly judged based on the gender they identify themselves as.

i think what beeing a feminist meens has changed a lot in reason years people always youst to think weardos burning bras but now the feminist moment is working more with ethnic minoritys and its taken more seriously now

if you look at the American government just as a quick example most of the people with power (just under 90%) are white males leaving 10% for wimen and ethnic minoritys

i reasontly watched a documentary called miss direction is avalubell on netflix and it was kinda wow theres alote that you dont notiss or even think about

Not sure if this would be the right and proper board post, I didn't want to start a new one; but it has to do with women's roles….
I know that women are not valued as much as we would like to be; however I wonder if it isn't because of the women willing to be the lesser to gain something silly (not silly to them but to me). It is hard to say what is silly; my aunt always tells me that "it may not hurt my feelings, but that doesn't mean it hasn't hurt someone else) I get that I do, we should try to be sensitive to others needs and feelings, BUT!! I have an issue when I come to this site (mostly with a female population) and I see young girls posting their projects in a "sexy" or "provocative" way. I mean we all aren't gay and we all don't want to see someones cleavage all the time! I mean I don't want to offend or assume anything about gay women, but I assume that they aren't MEN! and that a picture of a girl with 10lbs of cleavage will not cause them to buy or favorite something… am I wrong? Are gay women like men when it comes to women's bodies? If not; id really like to see when a girl posts her project it consists of more than tits and a partial photo of the project. I know this doesn't happen that much; but when I see a posted project that looks too "slutty" to me I go off the site for a few days so that the post is no longer on the front page, and really stick to the people that I follow because I don't want see some girl "selling" herself to a site frankly that has NOTHING to do with selling yourself; Etsy and craft cafe, and whatever other sites are for that…. this is more like a community of sharing caring people…. who put links to their selling sites….. It gets to me more when people don't even post their projects a a version either…… and then make it slutty…. argh!!
As a "feminist" although I'd always say police man and fire man; because I'll be a woMAN so it seems frivolous to be so distinctive. I feel like the distinction comes by the way you treat yourself; if you demand respect; the respecters will respect; and the haters will hate; where does this need for "look at me I have all the same treasures as all women; see my tits!?" comes from… anybody have any advice to quell the beast inside that would go to every post of a sluty nature and report and comment? Sorry if I sound like a jerk, but I care about women being respected, and when one is not respecting herself it Pisses me off!
ARGH! Why must I be opinionated!? lol

I am going to look up Miss Directionon netflix too.. thanks princess roni----- I looked it up it is Miss Representation…… watching now..

i don't think we can all be treated the same only because we're all different people some of the most sensitive ppl i have ever met are dudes and some of the toughest are girls i think our differences need to be addressed and fully accepted so we can get along , going off what krista said the female body is cool and all i mean i sleep on my own chest in class, but you don't have to get all provocative , sex sells but you got to see who's buying first

I agree with Andisam in a way - there's nothing wrong with wanting to be sexy or provocative, and I don't think men do it less then women do. Women pose differently to be sexy - men are more likely to stand neutrally and look big/strong, which is 'sexy' but in a different way. There's no reason to say that nobody can show off their body and still respect themselves.
As for terminology of policeman and fireman - while it does come from the context of having these jobs be male only, people also do -often!- use words such as police officer or fire fighter. It's not really a huge issue.
My main 'feminist issues' if you will are basically wage gap, violence against women, sexual harassment, and intersectionality with LGBTQ+ groups, non-white feminism, and disabled groups. A straight white able-bodied woman is treated worse than a straight white able-bodied man, but often better than a disabled queer black man will be, which I still think is a feminist issue.

Olivia I think you said it all, perfect. You are right.

I totally agree Olivia!