By Casey King
A new trend has been seen on several social media sites in the last few weeks. “Women Against Feminism” is an online group that has its own Tumblr, Facebook, and hash-tag. It is popping up more and more on news feeds and news sites. The group includes a collection of photos that women send in of them holding a sign explaining why they are against feminism. The real issue however, is not the thousands of women that are supposedly against feminism, but the clear misunderstanding these thousands of women have about the word “feminist”.
Feminism is, in a general term, the belief in gender equality. However, the group is convinced that feminism is about hating men, victim-blaming, slut-shaming, and female supremacy. Some examples of what these women have said is the reason they are against feminism include, “I don’t need feminism because I want my children to respect women and men”, “ I don’t need feminism because I wear what I want to wear, not what other people want me too”, “ I am not a feminist because I don’t hate men”, “ I don’t need feminism because I am heterosexual and a world without men would suck”, “ I don’t need feminism because my husband is my equal”, and “ I reject feminism because being a mother is the greatest source of joy in my life”
It is unclear where these women got the idea that feminism is about getting rid of men and their rights, dress-codes, and being anti-motherhood. It is scary to think that a stereotype of men-hating women is what comes to the mind of so many women when they hear the word feminism. It is an important issue that many people are missing the point of. Another topic brought up in the group includes the idea that feminism is not needed because the men in these women’s lives love and respect them. Having men in your life that love and respect you is great and should be celebrated, however not every women is lucky enough to experience that. Women Against Feminism is somehow unaware of issues that are happening on a larger scale than their own neighborhood. If these women were given better representations of what a feminist is, or were educated on the idea of feminism, we could have a lot more people working together for equal rights of all genders.
In response to the group, many parody sites have come up. Confused Cats Against Feminism features cats holding similar signs while lounging around their house. BuzzFeed.com has featured many spin offs of the group, including Rebecca Brink, who took different photos holding up sarcastic signs of what she though the Women Against Feminism really were thinking. You can see her photos on her blog at http://www.flareandfade.com/i-dont-need-feminism-because/
Amy Poehler might have described the online group best when she commented on the recent anti-feminist trend, “But I don’t get it. That’s like someone being like, ‘I don’t really believe in cars, but I drive one every day and I love that it gets me places and makes life so much easier and faster and I don’t know what I would do without it.”