Feminism

Feminism is a word that most people flinch or laugh at as they picture a self-proclaimed tomboy man-hater. But feminism, real feminism as it is understood by those who believe in it and practice it, is the belief in a system wherein men and women are provided with the same opportunities, the same choices, and the same treatment in every faction of life. It does not disregard femininity, but rather stresses the fact that women have been forced into a specific ideal by the patriarchy that exists in today's society, and they should have the choice to step out of that.

Feminism is often seen as men-hating, or misandry, but real feminists don't deny that men also suffer at the hands of prejudice and stereotyping in the media and in life. What needs to be understood, though, is that what men suffer is often juxtaposed to women's suffering. So if a man is judged for being too effeminate and he doesn't like that, it's because being effeminate or like a woman is bad, weak, or humiliating. In order to fix the lesser problem of sexism towards men, we must first address the vastly different and larger issue of sexism towards women.

In the media especially, women must fall into a specific few categories to be deemed "beautiful" or "sexy", and if they do not, they are often not portrayed at all, or at least not in the popular media as it stands today.

As we learned from Killing Us Softly, Ted Talk by Joanna Blakely, and Codes of Gender, women are portrayed as the weaker, gentler sex and their body mannerisms depict this. In popular media, it is difficult to find women posing for a camera whose bodies aren't tilted or slanted or off-balance in some way, an indirect communication to anyone viewing her that she is not stable, not strong, and not sturdy enough (at least, not without a man's help!). They are leaning, twisting, bending, and stretching their bodies so the focus is on their unsteadiness and their physical attributes instead of what should really matter.

There are men models, of course, and to say that they are not objectified would be a lie, but the positions they are in are ones of power, stature, steadiness, and strength.

It comes to a point where men posing in traditionally feminine ways is seen as ridiculous, unsettling, and even funny. In Rion Sabean's project "Men-Ups!", he has tried to expose this prejudice by taking classic pin-up poses by ladies, such as:

and making men, doing classically masculine things in masculine clothes, pose in these ridiculous ways, thus exposing just how ridiculous looking these poses are, for both men and women.

If all that is making these photos ridiculous is the pose and facial expression, what does it say about a culture that decides that it's okay for women to degrade themselves, but for men it's seen as silly and emasculating? 

This is not to say women cannot be feminine. Classic femininity is seen as beautiful for a reason and wanting to subscribe to that way of thinking does not make a person an anti-feminist. A woman who shaves her legs is just as much of a feminist as one who refuses to, so long as the two believe in the idea that feminism represents: the ability for a woman to choose what she likes, despite what society and the media tells her is socially acceptable.

As soon as we start educating the masses, teaching women and men alike that what we're doing to women, how we're portraying them in the media, is affecting us and has affected us for a very long time, the sooner we can come to an era where men and women are equally taken seriously in every environment, whether that be at home, at school, at work, or in the media.