"Everyone Should be a Feminist"

Following International Women’s Day on Tuesday, feminism has become a hot topic on internet and elsewhere. A statement which I have seen repeated again and again is that “everyone should be a feminist”. I fundamentally agree with this, however, I began to question whether it’s an idea we, as feminists, should really be preaching.

On the one hand, the idea of men being the superior sex is obviously (I hope) medieval. Many people I have spoken to have views along the lines of “I believe men and women are equal but I’m not a feminist”. This is could be seen as paradoxical as the underlying belief of the feminist movement is in fact gender equality. Why all these people, who hold feminist values, refuse to identify as a feminist is a question worth considering here. Is it the fact that feminism sometimes receives bad press? Have people only been exposed to extreme feminist and has this deterred them? Whichever way you look at it, it would appear that some kind of myth surrounding feminism is preventing people connecting with it. I think, therefore, that we have a responsibility to educate people on the real values of the movement. Once people fully understand the theory, can it be claimed that “everyone should be a feminist” ?

An idea that would serve as a ‘yes’ answer to the above question would be the fact that most adults in society are a role model to somebody. Our children, our siblings, our peers, at least one person looks up to us. With this in mind, it could be argued that “everyone should be a feminist” because we have the responsibility to portray fair and equal values to other members of society. Claiming that one is not a feminist carries a whole host of connotations (even if they’re not true) which is not something, at least I think, we should be injecting into society.

It could also be argued it is acceptable to tell people they “should be a feminist” because feminism is a united movement which is helping to create a more equal society. Rather than everybody holding individual gender equality views and largely keeping them to themselves, feminism provides an outlet for these views and puts them on the political and social agenda. It could be said, therefore, that believing in gender equality but not being prepared to say “I am a feminist” is stinting the emergence of an equalitarian society.

However, as is often the case, this is not a black and white issue. Feminism affects so many things and as such, its values can often get muddled, contradictory or hypocritical. For example, for some people, wearing makeup is anti-feminist because it promotes the idea that women are naturally not ‘good enough’. However, for some people, makeup allows women to express and feel good about themselves which is in keeping with feminist values. It is easy to see why people, therefore, may not want to call themselves a feminist because, at a deeper level, it is not always clear what it stands for. As such, it is difficult to say that “everyone should be a feminist” because feminism, in today’s complex society, is applied to more things than simply gender equality.

For me, the most important thing about feminism is that it sets women free. Free from the pressures to look a certain way, behave in a certain way, or take up certain jobs. This freedom must be universal. By telling women they must be a feminist, you are taking away their freedom to choose what they believe. This takes us back to the days when women were not given the vote because it was thought they could not think rationally. It is almost insulting to tell women who actively choose not to identify as a feminist that they should do this.

Although I strongly believe in the feminist cause and in my ideal world, everyone would be a feminist; I just don’t think it’s acceptable to preach this. To tell people (men and women) what they should be and what they ought to think is an anti-feminist and downright outdated concept. For me, the solution to so many people not identifying as feminists is education. Once we have equipped people with facts and knowledge about the movement, it is then up to them how they choose to act on this. We can educate and even persuade, but we certainly cannot dictate.