Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ashraf Owda
Ms. Moore
16 December 2016
As recently as 2014, the New York Times has described feminism as, Hot, Rude, and
self-confident. These are few of the positive aspects about this new wave of feminism. And that
certainly is true, men and women are now fighting for equality on a global spectrum, on paper
that is. However, in reality, feminists tend to veer off so far into aggression while trying to make
their point that the neutral observer sees their cause as a feud rather than a call to reform.
Therefore, modern feminism has overshadowed the great work done in the history of feminism,
especially that of the 1960s-70s. The new demented spawn of feminism brings negative
connotations that stray away from its roots, portraying men and woman badly, and misconstruing
Feminism has not garnered itself a bad name, feminism as a movement, has garnered
itself a bad reputation due to the actions of the people who partake in it. According to a poll
conducted by The Washington Post, 43% of American believe that the word Anger perfectly
describes feminism. 48% said that yes, feminist unfairly blame men for women's challenges.
More and more women are now ashamed to join a group such as this, and it shouldnt have to be
this way.
In 1966 the National Organization of Women (NOW) was created to fight for equality.
Dont let their name fool you, they fought not only for women's rights, but for rights overall.
Chab Dai was founded in Cambodia in 2005, hoping to rid the world of all forms of sexual
Owda 2
abuse, human trafficking and exploitation. These are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of
feminist organizations fighting for a better, unified world. But once you look up modern feminist
movements, you get different results. You get hate, anger, and desperation. This new wave has
run out of things to fight for, or so they think so. There are still inequalities in this world that they
can go out and challenge, but that would require actually doing something.
The word trigger has also acquired a new meaning. When one thinks of a trigger they
think of a gun, someone using it to hurt others, shots fired. Now, whenever the word is
mentioned it is associated with feminism. They think of women flailing their arms in anger and
disrupting people for no apparent reason at all. It is being used to silence the masses, words such
as large, black, or thin are now considered to offensive to be politically correct. These are
descriptive words that we as a society cannot use. Why does this matter you may ask? When
words get silenced, and/or get you punished, your freedom is also being silenced. Your basic
human rights are being infringed upon, and what is one thing feminist fought for?
These new feminists would argue that its a good thing to go out there and make your
voice heard, and that not using certain words keeps us from hurting one another. They bring up
the fact that they are not doing anything wrong, merely practicing their first amendment. Which
is true. They also bring up many important issues, such as the government's involvement with
abortion, They are currently protesting Ohios twenty week ban on abortion, so some say that
They are absolutely right, they are allowed to practice their basic human rights. But
modern feminists are one of the most hypocritical group currently out there. A man of size was
being interviewed for a news segment a few months ago when a woman approached him
claiming he had no right to be speaking on behalf of the people. Rudy Pantoja Jr. was speaking
Owda 3
about the injustice of the political system when it came to treating criminals when he was
verbally attacked by a self labeled feminists. The feminists in question was none other than
Zarna Joshi, a climate change activist and a member of Women of Color Speak Out. This man,
Rudy, was verbally attacked and accused of rape in a public space, tarnishing his reputation, why
you may ask? All because he made a dad joke, he made a pun. Rudy didnt deserve all the hate
he got, and feminist not apart of the 3rd wave also agreed. The fact that actual feminists are
fighting these new modern feminists should be proof enough. Proof that something has to
change.
The belief that this third wave must stop would be a false claim. People change with time,
and we as a society need to change, We need to change the way we view feminism. This new
wave should not be the first thing that comes to our minds when we think of the word
feminism. Why would we as a whole want to ostracize all the great things that actual feminists
have done. Over all the responsibility comes down to us, the majority, to change our thinking and
change it for the better. Why must we change? Why cant the feminists change? Modern feminist
can, and have been compared to spoiled crying children. Sometimes you have to cut them off.
Works Cited
Cai, Weiyi, and Scott Clement . Poll: Feminism in the U.S. The Washington Post, WP
project/poll/.
Owda 4
www.feminist.org/.
Filipovic, Jill. The Men Feminists Left Behind. The New York Times, The New York
feminists-left-behind.html.
www.ushistory.org/us/57a.asp.
Shulevitz, Judith. How to Fix Feminism. The New York Times, The New York Times,
_r=0.