Standing Up Against Patriarchy

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I am a feminist. I identify myself as an intersectional feminist, which means that for me it is not just men vs. women or patriarchy vs. women. It creates a very binary picture where all the men have equal privilege over all the women, which is simply not true. I have my issues with some aspects of feminism, especially the one we the on the media. I do not like the rich white academic feminism I constantly see. I do not like that some feminists say that although women are so different, they all have common issues. It is true to some extent; however, since this argument only involves sex (not even gender) and it does not consider any other types of oppression a person may experience, such as race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, …show more content…

I agree that feminism should not be just about standing up against patriarchy. We cannot achieve equality by just fighting sexism (the same way we cannot achieve equality by just fighting against classism). I understand what she was trying to explain by “I don't think it's just women anymore”. However, I think, it should have never been just about being a woman. This is my problem with feminism before the third wave: “votes for women” is all great, however, what it actually meant was votes for white women since the issue of race was ignored. There is no oppression standard that each woman experienced. Making emphasis just on the person’s sex, while ignoring all the other factors is not going to work. However, even though there is a grain of truth in her words, I do not agree with it. The core of intersectional feminism is the inclusion of “people of color, lesbians, and transgenders”. Naturally, the emphasis is made on the different types of oppression women have experienced. The concept of the intersectionality, however, does not exclude the idea that men cannot be oppressed. However, we do not live in the world of victorious feminism; therefore, I do not think that it should be humanism (or whatever word “I am not a feminist, but I believe in equality” people choose to use) since we are not at the point when we can just forget about gender-based oppression because it is no more. Usually when people say something like “Why not humanism?”, they ignore the fact that misogyny and sexism are still thriving. Also, it always raises a question inside my head: If you say that men and women are oppressed and both suffering from the patriarchy equally, then who benefits from it? If everyone suffers equally, then why this still exist to this day? Who is in charge of this oppression? However, the problem with Parker’s statement that I personally have is not that she does not recognize that women are no longer

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