Let's Talk About the F word, Feminism...

Men of Quality support Women's Equality

Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone who has ever had to Google “Is it misogynistic if…?”—hold your beers! Let’s talk feminism today, and about women, too (Reminds me of that one friend in every group, lmao!). That makes you nervous, too, sometimes, right? (I mean, NEVER in my life!?) Nowadays, men hear the F word and just start looking for the nearest exit. For women, they calculate if it’s worth getting into an argument with their stupid “friend” (and that too, on someone’s treat or birthday party, preferably! Hehehe)

Now, let’s bust the myth, let’s bring it all down a bit, to the core. To something that is actually meaningful. And not a perfectly fine young lady making an elderly man stand up, by saying “I am a woman so I want to have that seat” (It’s really a torture for middle-aged. The elders, at least, get to have their say..) The real thing is, feminism isn’t scary! It’s not a cult like some of you may think. It’s not like they have secret meetings where they plot to destroy men. (I mean, if they really did, they wouldn’t have to deal with ‘manspreading’ on public transportation) To really understand feminism, one must first understand the structure of power. You know, power is not merely a sword wielded by tyrants or a crown adorned by kings, it’s far more insidious. It is invisible force that dictate who speaks and who listens, who creates and who consumes, who moves freely and who remains bound. And feminism is not merely an intellectual endeavour; it is an ethical demand. The demand for recognition, for justice, for dignity. And yet, every wave of feminism has been met with resistance, not merely from men, but from the very structure that governs the society. WHY?

A Systemic Myth

If we look into the past, for centuries, the world had been structured by a simple, brutal assumption: that man is the default, and woman is the exception. Even the language of philosophy fuels the bias— Aristotle declared that the female was "a deformed male,” Thomas Aquinas echoed that woman was a “a misbegotten man.” The male intellect was seen as the architect of reason, while the female body was a vessel of nature, chaos, and reproduction. In such a world, woman’s subjugation was not an injustice— it was inevitable. The irony is we always meet that one bloke who spurts out words like an old diesel engine car blows smoke everywhere. The worst is, they think they are making a point, and they expect the same from you, they want acknowledgement to whatever they say: “Who was responsible for Ramayana? -Sita. Who was responsible for Mahabharata? -Draupadi. Who was responsible for Trojan war? -Helen.” I want to ask that guy, who was responsible for your ugly— (beep, beep! Censored.) That, for me, is misuse of history, for self-interested and radically-invoked agenda building!

Now, I don’t want you to jump the gun, just try to understand that, feminism, at its core, is not only a fight for women— it is a fight against power itself. It threatens the very foundation upon which society has been built; the idea that some are born to rule, and others to serve (Something like Robert Filmer’s “Patriarcha.” Ohh, how pleasantly suiting that title is!) It is no coincidence that those who fear feminism often frame it as destruction rather than liberation. They do no fear equality; they fear the loss of privilege. But privilege is a double-edged sword. The patriarchal world that has bound women, has also bound men— forcing them into roles of aggression, stoicism, and dominance (Not the sadists crying) If a woman has been denied agency, man has been denied vulnerability. And yet, even as feminism seeks to unchain both, there are those who resist, clinging to the old gods, with desperate hands! And so, it remains a paradox. Because, it is both universal and personal. It seeks to liberate all, yet is met with the fiercest opposition from those who have the most to gain (Keep guessing) It is accused of being both too radical and too accommodating. It is both a battle and a philosophy, and an argument and a revolution.

Mind you, it is one of the oldest on-going movement the world has ever witnessed. Yet, it has no single definition, because you must understand that it is an essentially contested concept. I personally think most feminists being ideologically left is the bone of contention, that’s what people do not like, generally. So, they try every method to bring them down; target their ideas, tarnish the images of the people on the forefront, set an agenda against their cause, bring in conspiracy theories, long story short, they boil their reputation down to “War Against Men.” This is not true in any sense, yet one in three men believe that, “feminism does more harm than good.” Most Gen-Z kids feel like feminism, as a movement, is “an emotional assault on men.” Reports even say out of every 10 women, 4 of them believe that feminism is an “unnecessary burden” implied on society. Also, 60% of men in the whole world believe that feminism is “biased” and perpetually has exploited men! (That is 6 dudes out of a group of 10. Mental) Above all, what’s funny is, there is always this donny who yells “I’m not a feminist because I believe in equality.” (Well, whoever he was trying to impress, she’s going to say no, lol) I mean buddy, that’s what feminism is. That’s literally it. That’s like saying “I am not a vegetarian, I just only eat plants!” (You absolutely wild moron. Make it make sense, man!) The truth is, the anti-feminist positions have dominated the whole narrative, to this day, and it’s evident. Just see around you, and you may encounter an imbecile like this!

Need of the Hour!

Some of the arguments I’ve heard are that it is not relevant anymore as it has deviated from its previous stands, and causes. I agree with them, not fully, but I do. I feel like most of their work has been historic, and it resulted in various breakthroughs in the course of history. The toughest of the nuts have been cracked, all that remains is just complementary, maybe! They stood for the right to vote for women, which is available to women in every other country in the world, except maybe for women in the Vatican. There is a woman in every parliament in every country, women are much more educated now, than they were before. In terms of women in formal paid work, women have the greatest number now, relatively, considering any year in the past course of anthropogenic evolution. There is an estimate that the women workforce all around the world could contribute to roughly $28T to the world’s economy every year.

But, on the flipside of things, women around the world only possess only 2/3^rd of rights, that men possess. They are paid 20% less, for the same job as a man. Women receive significantly less funds for their business ideas or start-ups, compared to men. 76% of unpaid healthcare is done by women, for which they do no get recognition at all. Talking about health, women are most vulnerable to poor health and poverty; a woman dies every 2 minutes around the world during childbirth! Around 50 crore women around the world do not have access to sanitary products, sometimes, leaving them vulnerable to hygienic issues, which might further escalate towards contracting even hormonal problems such as PCOS. 270 million women across the world do not have access to contraception, leading to unwanted pregnancy. Having said this, 40% countries have restrictive abortion laws, leaving a woman in an unwanted dilemma. 1 out of 3 women around the world are subjected to intimate partner violence around the world; that’s close to 34% of the total women! 12,000 women around the world face gender mutilation, with or against their wishes, everyday! I remember António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, stating, “Gender equality is 300 years away!” (That is the roughly the same number of years, in the past, when Aurangzeb was alive!) That is the state of the world on 8^th of March, 2025! And it might get worse, if we keep on turning a Nelson’s eye towards women, towards feminism!

So, listen. It isn’t about hating men, or not about burning bras, too! It’s just about levelling up the playing field, in simple words. Or maybe, about making sure women don’t have to deal with wage gaps, gender discrimination or people questioning whether they’re “too ambitious” for a promotion (Or creepy DMs, too. Lol) And fellas, if you are still scared of feminism, just remember: it’s not about making men less. It’s about making everyone more. And let’s be real— feminism has come a long way. We now have female CEOs, female presidents, female astronauts! (We even got Barbie before GTA VI, that made men reflect on the crushing weight of societal expectations) But there’s still work to do. So, let’s keep fighting. For better representation, for the right to just exist in the world without being told to “smile more.”

The underlying Message

And dear ladies, remember, we’re not against you. We love you! We just want you to stop explaining movies to us that we’ve already seen! Apart from that, more power to you!