Welcome, welcome! We‘re going to start the week right with my favorite topic: Feminism.
If you know me you are aware that this is a topic that I have given a lot of thought. Mainly, because I am confronted with it in my every day life and it took me a long time to understand that the way society sees women doesn’t apply to me. And that is not because I am “not like other girls” but because women aren’t seen as strong and independent most of the time. I am happy to say that I am surrounded by people that share my view of equality for women and men. But the times that I break out of my bubble still surprise me (very much).
Just recently I read a post on instagram that made me think about the way I was brought up.
I was taught that I am not like other girls, that I am strong and independent. But why do I have to be different than all other girls to be strong and independent? The answer is, I don’t.
It is simply that no little girl wants to be seen as the thoughtless one-dimensional caricature of makeup and boobs that they were taught to believe they are.
Where you that little girl? The girl that was different than all the others. That wanted to stand out because it was smart and strong.
I sure as hell was her.
The reason that I am bringing this up is that I think it’s important to start a conversation about things that are seen as normal in our society. It’s not normal that girls believe that they are not as smart or as strong as boys. Society did that. And I think it’s time to change that.
I read a post where a woman my age reposted an article that said “Millenial women are ‘worried’, ‘ashamed’ of out-earning boyfriends and husbands” and the woman who reposted it wrote “No we’re not. Please pay us more.”
Why is there still a gender pay gap? Why is it that women get paid less for the same work? I just don’t get it.
And I also don’t get why it is ok for men to post photos on social media where their nipples can be seen but it’s not ok for women. I have discussed that with a man and he said that this is because of biological reasons. And by biological reasons I mean evolution. Because breasts are seen as a criteria for men if a woman is a good mating fit. Because of that the breasts of a woman are marked as sexual for men. But why should I care? It’s not my problem that a man sees my breast as sexual. Maybe I have a nipple fetish and that’s why a men’s nipples are marked as sexual for me. That is not his problem. And I wouldn’t want it to be. What about breastfeeding? Is that not the purpose of boobs?
If you have a different opinion on that topic, please leave a comment. I would love to hear what you think!
Here are some facts about how women are presented in society today:
→ only 11.7% of parliamentarians worldwide are women
→ in 2019 out of the 500 highest-grossing firm’s CEOs only 7% were women
→ worldwide 0% of CEOs are women
→ an analysis on popular movies found that only 23% featured a female protagonist and only 31% of all speaking characters were women
→ FIFA paid $400 million to 34 male soccer teams for participating in a world cup and only $30 million to 24 female soccer teams *
As you can see we are far from creating equality in our society.
I chose the title for this article because I want you to remember that we’re all in this together (insert “High School Musical” dance moves).
And it’s not that we are all the same. We are still all individuals. But we can be what we want to be and become who we want to be. Wouldn’t it be great if that was what society made young girls and boys believe? That they all have every possibility they want?
I hope you enjoyed this article and I would love to hear what you think!
Just leave a comment or message me via the contact form.
See you soon,
Ingalisa
*source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/visualizing-the-data-women-s-representation-in-society/