Nothing is wrong with feminism. Some people misunderstand the idea of feminism. So here, I wanna help you to know more about feminism through my writing. I’ll try to answer these following questions:
- What is exactly feminism?
- Is it relevant to be applied in Indonesia?
Starting from the first question, to be honest I am sad and mad knowing that sexist cases appear lately for example a police man shares ‘motivational’ videos containing sexist issues especially because a police officer should be neutral and equal in gender, but certain people still defend him. Let’s pray for humanity! I’ll talk about sexism later on the next writing, but this case leads people to the idea of feminism. People claimed themselves as feminists of course stand for the gender equality, the other people do not admit that they’re the feminists because the bad idea about feminism that spreads on our society. So, please pay attention, my dear friends who still care in humanity 🙂
The term ‘feminist’ appeared along with the women’s movement for GAINING THEIR RIGHTS. Feminism is like a tool to fix the problem of women’s inequality in the society. Bad things happen to women so that they need to fight in order to gain their rights.
Women experienced a long history mistreated by the society regarding to their rights. In the beginning, a philosopher named Aristotle, also claimed that women were only female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities (Selden, Widdowson: 1993). People who were known as intellectuals also degraded women and said that there would be no life if the sperm as the active seeds did not look for the ovum which waited to be penetrated. Until in the 1890s, the English women realized that there must be something to do which was fighting for their rights. Women were bothered by how the patriarchal culture worked in the society and pursued a sexual equality.
The movement of feminism also happened periodically. It is divided into three movements or three waves which are first, second and third wave of feminism. The first wave of feminism appeared around the last 19th century up to early 20th century. The main issue that caused the feminist movement comes from the women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements. According to Oxford Dictionary ‘suffragist’ means a person advocating the extension of suffrage, especially to women. In this case, women in several country held demonstrations to gain their rights to vote in election.
The second wave of feminism appeared for the first time in a book entitled The Feminine Mystique in 1963 by Betty Friedan (Selden, Widdowson, Brooker: 2005). The book contains the movement of the second wave of feminism itself. The movement involved more issues such as sexuality, experience, social, and economic problems in women.
The next movement of feminism occurred in 1990s. The term ‘third wave feminism’ appeared for the first time in an article entitled Becoming the Third Wave (1992) wrote by Rebecca Walker in Ms. Magazine. In the article, she wrote “I am not a post-feminism feminist. I am the Third Wave.” The third wave of feminism is a repetition of previous movements. According to Walker this was not only a reaction toward the society but it was a movement that the war to gain equality between men and women was far from an end.
According to Imelda Whelehan, in her book entitled American Second Wave Feminism: The Ethics of Heterogeneity, there are several types of feminism in the second wave of feminism which are liberal, Marxist, radical, lesbian and black feminism. Liberal feminism takes the focus on women freedom the get the equal opportunity in various fields from the society. Marxist feminism argues that the inequality in women are caused by the capitalist society such as the unequal payment for women. Radical feminism emerges the powerful radical politics to gain the value focuses on the female sexuality and body. Lesbian feminism Lesbian feminism aims to combine the positive aspects of gay and feminist politics, and it asserts that hetero sexuality is not the only choice, whereas black feminism is caused by the oppression of racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism.
The movement will continue until there is no case that degrades women and puts women in the second class. If you ask me whether or not I am a feminist, yes I am. I’m trying to be a clever feminist who must adapts with the culture in Indonesia.
The second question is about the relevance if it is applied in Indonesia. My answer is a big YES. Why not? It is a good thing that women are treated equally like men. Every single person on this earth matters. For the people who use certain religion to oppress women, it is just your excuse for yourselves. Please be a human. I believe in God over everything, and God never teaches us to oppress each other.
Being a feminist is for both men and women. For the people who believe in gender equality, I do thank you 🙂
