Just saying, if they're fighting for equality of both genders, why would it just be called "feminism", stemming from the word female?
I'm a female and I'm all for equal rights, but equalism makes more sense. In my opinion.
Guest, most of the feminists I've seen and dealt with, including the one that had the backbone to knock me off my horse a couple months back simply because she's female, do not stand for anything close to equality, if anything they stand for sexism, they blast men for every single problem they have in their lives even though the fact that they can't get a job or buy a car/house stems from problems they caused themselves. Now before I get accused of anything, I'm all for equality regardless of sex, religion, race, whatever BUT by no means does any of those things entitle anyone to a 'free ride' through life.
I think the problem with a lot of feminists, even the ones who claim to want equality, is that they want changes made, but changes to the benefit of one sex (and not always to the detriment of the other) but are unwilling to address issues where their own sex is given advantages not given to men. Thus they want equality, but only where they can benefit from it.
Whospikedthepunch - I don't think most feminists are actually "feminazis." It's just that the extremists get the attention...like how terrorists give Muslims a bad rap, criminals cause a race to be stereotyped, or Westboro Baptists twist Christianity's message.
changetheworld- Exactly! Feminists who are aware of the fact that sexism, in all its forms, hurts men too do not want to benefit from being female; we want gender to be advantage-less. And the reason it it called feminism is because of the women who first fought for change in the 1920's, back when women were legally not considered to be "persons".
I'm just saying most of the ones local to me are the extreme kind especially since a small group pretty much terrorizes the town (of 500 people) last week they were picketing a local store because they had to close the woman's bathroom for repairs though both bathrooms are basically the same except for the doors.
There's nothing wrong with the name itself, or its origins. The problem is the horrible connotation it has today. As so many have commented, a lot of people don't view a "feminist" as somebody that promotes equality, but as somebody that promotes women above men (commonly referred to as "feminazi" now). The "fight" for the cause has broadened and changed, that in itself should warrant a name change as you aren't just fighting for women's rights, but all people's rights (or so I've been told by "true" feminists). Why WOULDN'T you take the opportunity to change your name and distance yourself from those people and that bad connotation? I'm sure today, a lot of people could associate themselves with many of the original ideals of Nazism (before all the antisemitic stuff). Do you think they would ever call themselves Nazis though? Of course not, because obvious things happened and the name gained a huge stigmata.
Do you think that somebody that wanted to go back to promoting those ideals would gain much traction by trying to bring the Nazi party back to power? Or would they have a much easier time of it by just simply changing the name to something new that doesn't have a horrible connotation, even though what they are fighting for hasn't changed a bit. (To repeat, I'm not talking about the obviously bad parts that Nazism changed into, but the original ideals of promoting socialism, and being against communism, capitalism, big business, separate "upper class" citizens, etc.)
I've got zero problems with them changing the name but the next one that hits me just because I'm riding a female beast of burden is getting hog tied and dropped at the sheriffs office, I am NOT a fan of getting smacked in the face with a plywood sign because somebody else has her butt floss in a knot!
It is called feminism because of the suffragettes who first fought for equality in the 1920's; when a women was, by law, not "a person". They changed the face of civil rights, and womens' rights forever.
The movement started out as a way to raise the rights of women in the 1920s when women were clearly at a far more disadvantage position in relation to men (hence the 'female' name), now days the goals of the movement have shifted to included creating more equality for all
genders. The view people have against the word feminism can be considered in some ways the reason why the name needs to stay as it is; if people are so so adverse to something being feminine, what does that say about our world? Also when you think about it women for many years have been referred to in relation to men, not as their own person, and so is it really such a hard thing for men to be referred to in relation to women for once?
To follow it up, I'm not against the name of movement being changed, I'm interested in the reasons WHY it should be changed; Why changing it would make It more popular.
People want the name changed because for a movement that claims to be about "equality" it does quite a bit of the exact opposite. In fact, you claim modern feminists want equality for both genders, so please go ahead and back it up. Link some sources showing feminists helping out with male issues, because I can sit here all day and link hundreds that show themddoing the exact opposite.
Let's add some more, shall we? Here we have video feminists, once again, sabotaging a lecture on male issues, primarily the hugely disproportionate suicide statistics between men and women.
http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=c7d_1398018303
And here we have a state threatening to jail a man and/or force him to pay child support for a kid that isn't his, solely because a women lied and claimed he was the father.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/state-tells-detroit-man-pay-for-child-that-isnt-yours-or-go-to-jail
So yeah, I'm a bit skeptical when someone tries to tell me that modern day feminists are about equality.
The reason only blog posts can be found is, much like Muslim extremist s, the only feminist protests or movements that are given proper news focus are the ones that don't represent the whole, the ones that fit with your and the general populaces view of what a modern feminist is (because not only is our a society a male dominated one but our media is also; subsequently those are the stories which will sell). It is also important to remember that feminism is a a movement primarily for women's rights not for men's, the aim of which is to elevate a women's position in society onto equal terms with men who are, even today, in a higher position in society. Much like during the coloured rights movement, the people to whom the current system benefits cannot see the need for a new one unless it directly benefits them.
Are people really so ignorant to think that a name change would do anything? Do the values and motives of a specific movement mean nothing unless it's couched in a pretty sounding name?
Or maybe people could just educate themselves. Yes ask the women who have to change how they behave to fit into this society to then change the name of the movement they are using to make life more fair for them.
Plenty examples of men hating. Also the name supports that they supports women’s rights ONLY. Equality is the umbrella used to justify certain changes that are not listened to because it sounds like everyone SHOULD support what they support regardless of validity.
The problem I have with changing the name is because equality can not always be a good thing. Hear me out. So feminism was used to raise women to the level of men (in some circumstances many believe that this has not occurred and in many countries this is a fact of everyday life) but equality could mean bringing the male gender down to the female level. They would both be equal but that isn't a benefit to anyone
I'm a female and I'm all for equal rights, but equalism makes more sense. In my opinion.
genders. The view people have against the word feminism can be considered in some ways the reason why the name needs to stay as it is; if people are so so adverse to something being feminine, what does that say about our world? Also when you think about it women for many years have been referred to in relation to men, not as their own person, and so is it really such a hard thing for men to be referred to in relation to women for once?
http://m.mic.com/articles/88277/23-ways-feminism-has-made-the-world-a-better-place-for-men
http://m.wmctv.com/wmctv/pm_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=od:mVeQvJ2j
Or what about here, where women's groups forced a halt to a law that would have defined rape as something either gender can do?
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Womens-groups-Cancel-law-charging-women-with-rape
http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=c7d_1398018303
And here we have a state threatening to jail a man and/or force him to pay child support for a kid that isn't his, solely because a women lied and claimed he was the father.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/state-tells-detroit-man-pay-for-child-that-isnt-yours-or-go-to-jail
So yeah, I'm a bit skeptical when someone tries to tell me that modern day feminists are about equality.