Why We Wont Achieve Equality Rethinking Social Activism

when i

was 11 years old i was in a class with

15 boys

and one other girl needless to say i had

to suffer the

girls go to jupiter to get more stupider

jokes on a daily basis

at this time i looked to feminism to

help me feel

inspired accepted and seen

fast forward a year to when i’m 12 years

old and i’m beginning to question my

sexuality

with no one to guide me i turn to lgbt

activists

to help me feel inspired accepted

and seen but fast forward

another few years and something began to

change

i started to see lgbt activists

advocating

for child drag queens to perform in over

21 clubs

i started to see self-proclaimed

feminists

hiss at men to stop mansplaining because

a man’s opinion

doesn’t matter anyways

now when i look to feminism and lgbt

activists

the groups that claim to represent and

fight for me

i no longer feel inspired accepted

or seen i feel

embarrassed and i’m not the only one

an article published by the bbc stated

that only 34

of women today identify as a feminist

and what’s even more scary is that an

article published

by the lgbt organization glad revealed

that acceptance rates of lgbt people has

declined from

63 percent

to 45 within two years

why is it that when our media is more

saturated with pro-lgbt content

and feminist rhetoric than has ever been

before

that acceptance rates for these

communities are declining

clearly there is a problem with our

current approach

to activism and an aspect of that

problem that i’ll be addressing today

is how activists appear to force their

ideology upon others

with no regard for truth

this can be seen through the example of

the feminist movement

feminism is defined as the advocacy for

women’s rights

on the basis of the equality of the

sexes

but with the right right to vote and own

property among many other things

what is it that today’s feminists third

wave feminists are fighting for

well you have all probably heard that a

woman makes 89 cents

to every one dollar that a man earns

or that one in five women are raped

while attending college

these statistics are the face of the

feminist movement today

a face that entices so much anger fear

and resentment in so many young girls

yet it is a face that is lying to us

the statistic that a woman earns 89

cents

for every one dollar that a man earns

has been used by feminists

as evidence for the mistreatment of

women in the workforce

yet this difference in earnings can be

explained

entirely by the fact that women

often choose lower paying jobs than men

resulting in the average earnings of a

woman

being lower than a man and while yes

this does carry social implications this

statistic is often misused by feminists

who claim that women are being paid less

for equal work

the statistic that one in five women

are raped while attending college

campuses has been echoed by

influential figures like joe biden and

barack obama

yet an article published in forbes

reveals that in reality we don’t

actually know what the likelihood of

rape on college campuses is

because when creating this statistic

researchers in

researchers included sex after

consumption of alcohol

as rape this is a problem because this

does not

this does not include how much the women

were actually drinking

or even consider consent

clearly this isn’t an accurate

representation of rape

and should not have been included when

creating these statistics

while i understand that feminism is

driven

by emotion it is clear from the misuse

of these statistics

that at times this emotion has allowed

has clouded feminist arguments and makes

feminism as a whole

seem to be irrational and has no regard

for truth

yeah some of you may be sitting there

thinking not all feminists

and yes not all of them but enough of

them

enough of them to taint the word

feminist for young girls like me

this trend can also be seen among the

lgbt activists

lgbtq plus is an acronym that represents

all those

who are non-heterosexual or transgender

it is no secret that this group of

people has struggled to gain acceptance

and continue to fight for marriage

equality as well as the legalization of

homosexuality

worldwide but especially in the west

they are also often criticized for

becoming victims of their own emotions

and allowing and allowing their emotions

and allowing to their emotions to cloud

their arguments

an example of this that stands out in my

mind happened in may

of last year when gender dysphoria was

removed

from the list of world of the world

health organization’s

list of mental health disorders

gender dysphoria is the medical

diagnosis given to those

who feel the need to transition to a

gender that they were not assigned at

birth

but that reflects more accurately

affects who they are on the inside

a spokesperson for the world health

organization stated that one of the

primary reasons that gender dysphoria

was removed from the list

of mental health disorders was not

because it was low

no longer accurate but because

to reduce the stigma around transgender

people

it was not removed solely because it

wasn’t true

but because of this pressure the social

pressure from lgbt activists

who did not feel comfortable with having

the negative connotations

surrounding mental illness attached to

their movements

exaggerating or manipulating the truth

only makes it seem like there’s nothing

left to fight for

but in a world where child brides and

people being thrown into prison

or even murdered for their sexual

orientation

there is definitely still a reason to

stride strive for change

but activists must ground their movement

in truth and facts or else their

vision for equality will become

distorted

now i speak directly to you

those of you who identify with these

movements

we want the same thing we want to live

in a world

where a boy can tell his parents that he

has a boyfriend and not be afraid

a world where a girl can grow up knowing

she can be anything she wants to be

whether that be a teacher a politician

or a mother we want the same thing

but clearly the way we’re doing it now

isn’t working

we aren’t going to achieve equality

so please let’s take a step back and

fight the fight for equality that we can

actually win

thank you

you