Essay on feminism, we should all be feminists, Guide, Progetti e Ricerche di Sociologia

Scarica Essay on feminism, we should all be feminists e più Guide, Progetti e Ricerche in PDF di Sociologia solo su Docsity! PRESENTATION about FEMINISM – ENG LAB B2i SID I have decided to talk about feminism and what it implies because I consider it to be a major issue and, as a feminist, as a woman, and mainly as a human being, I felt the urge to spread knowledge about it. First of all: what is feminism? The dictionary defines it as the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes, or as the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. HOWEVER, some countries do not think and act like women are people, and here some examples: I’ll give you some numbers and percentages which I am sure will make you think. According to Forbes There are millions of people who both inwardly and outwardly do not support the idea that there should be equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women • There are thousands of people who feel we’ve already arrived at equality (and if there’s someone between us that feels it, I hope I’ve already changed your mind) • There are also thousands of people who believe we’re not at all there yet and support continuing efforts to pave the way for equal rights for men and women. • There are thousands who believe in equal rights but find “feminism” a word that doesn’t align with their personal beliefs or values It is abundantly clear that our specific views on these issues are rooted deeply in our own personal and direct experiences, rather than on any data, research or science surrounding the issues. (In other words, if we’ve personally faced discrimination AND WE CONSIDER IT AS SUCH, we know beyond doubt that it exists. But if we haven’t faced it ourselves, we often doubt that it happens.) Both conscious and unconscious gender bias is rampant within us, but most of us aren’t aware of it ARE YOU BIASED? I personally discovered that sometimes I am A simple concept backed up by neuroscience is the fact that our brain works through shortcuts, for instance how to shake hands or open a door (you do not spend much time thinking how to do that sort of things). Those are simpler patterns based on the cumulative effect of everything you’ve been exposed to throughout your life -> most of us have bias and we don’t even know it. WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS it doesn’t have to be this way In 2012 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer and activist, gave a Ted Talk in London, where she explained why we should all be feminists. She started off her speech by stating that men rule the world, and this made sense a thousand years ago because human beings lived then in a world in which physical strength was the most important attribute for survival. The physically stronger person was more likely to lead, and men, in general, are physically stronger. But today we live in a vastly different world. The person more likely to lead is not the physically stronger person; it is the more creative person, the more intelligent person, the more innovative person, and there are no hormones for those attributes. A man is as likely as a woman to be intelligent, to be creative, to be innovative. We have evolved; but it seems to me that our ideas of gender have not evolved. In her speech, she says she is angry and I am angry too: gender as it functions today is a grave injustice. We should all be angry. And we should begin to dream and plan for a different world, a fairer world, a world of happier men and happier women who can truly be themselves. And this is how to start: we must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently. We teach girls shame. "Close your legs”, Cover yourself." We make them feel as though by being born female they are already guilty of something. And so, they grow up to be women who silence themselves. They grow up to be women who cannot say what they truly think. It is easy for us to say, "Oh, but women can just say no to all of this." But the reality is more difficult and more complex. We are all social beings. We internalize ideas from our socialization The problem with gender, is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. An easy example of this is appearance. we start off with men as the standard, as the norm. If a man is getting ready for a business meeting, he does not worry about looking too masculine and therefore not being taken for granted. If a woman has to get ready for business meeting, she has to worry about looking too feminine and what it says and whether or not she will be taken seriously. I see this with my mum: she is a judge and she works in Rome. Every time she packs her begs and decide what to wear in court, she is worried about her appearance as a female, as if she should continue to prove she is valid to stay there. But I mean, she is there, so of course she is valid I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femaleness and for my femininity. And so should you (BOTH MEN AND WOMEN of course: femininity is always associated with the female gender, but it doesn’t really have to). I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be as a person. Let’s all try to unlearn many of the lessons of gender that we internalized growing up. Gender colors the way we experience the world. But we can change that.