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