This blog is a little over a year old now – a year that has
been full of new experiences, growth and extension of knowledge and wisdom, a
year of one of the most widely-publicised British general elections in history,
a year of supposed liberation and shift in societal attitudes (very, very
debatable). Since April 2014, I have become an entirely new person; I can
honestly say that if I had a conversation with the person I was last year, we
probably wouldn’t get on. This blog originally began as a platform to discuss
my views towards feminism and social justice, many of which have changed as I
have grown and matured and learnt more about how the world works. One of my
first blog posts outlined some ‘common misconceptions’ about feminists, which I
have come to realise may not actually be misconceptions at all, simply
prejudices, mockeries, parodies or exaggerations. I expressed my anger towards
feminists all being tarred as ‘hairy-legged lesbians’, but now I am proud to
say that some feminists ARE hairy-legged lesbians, and if that this does not
lessen their ideas or devalue their belief in equality. Despite being
vehemently against racism and any forms of discrimination, my feminism was very
restrictive and I seemed to disassociate feminism with other forms of civil
rights and social justice. I was unaware of many hardships people of ethnic
minorities and the LGBTQ+ community had to face, and this was probably largely
due to the fact that my only education regarding feminism came from people who
believed in the exclusionary ideas of white feminism. Since then, I have been
introduced to a wider range of inequalities and injustices, which have angered
me and consequently fashioned my current beliefs. I have learnt about the
struggle of people of colour - particularly women of colour- transfolk, the gay and lesbian community, and many other groups of people who are all human beings. Although the internet
and connection with so many different types of people that I would probably
never have had the opportunity to meet otherwise has ushered me in the right
direction, I have been enriched by many of my own experiences and those of my
closest friends, and have learnt the hard way that not all friends are
necessarily good people. In my opinion, a person’s political views does
determine largely who they are as a person, which is why the fact that just a year ago, I was so naïve and unknowingly
judgemental makes me wince, and the idea of people perceiving me as the person
I was a year ago is even worse, so I thought perhaps I would give people more
of an idea of what I believe nowadays, as of June 2015. Of course, my views and
ideologies will once again alter as I still have a lot of growing to do, but I feel
as if I have been given ample time and opportunity to nurture my own mind and
reflect on my personal beliefs about what feminism is.
Firstly, feminism should be intersectional: inclusionary of
every person suffering an injustice or inequality in the world. This includes
people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, women of all sizes, backgrounds and races,
etc. Men deal with a number of problems, such as injustice in issues of
custody, degradation and exclusion of rape, domestic violence and abuse, and
the expectation to maintain typical gender roles and hypermasculinity, but ‘meninism’
is a literal joke and does not value any of the real issues men face – it simply
mocks and degrades the struggle feminists fight against. In my opinion,
feminism should be against racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and
systematic oppression in all forms,
and these factors should not be separated so that people can pick and choose
which types of people they want to be more ‘equal’ than others. By definition,
feminism is the ‘desire for political, social and economic equality between the
sexes’, but my definition is so much more than that. My feminism calls for
equal opportunities for people of all types and is not exclusive for just
white, straight, cis-gender females. It is the freedom of expression through
art, literature and other media, the glorification of different cultures, the
appreciation of the beauty in those who have been told their whole lives that
they are not simply because they do not fit into generic definitions of the
word ‘beautiful’, the right for people to have their emotions, sexualities and
genders valued as opposed to disregarded or attacked simply because they cannot
be categorised. The beauty and diversity of the world is far too intense to
simply be ignored.
Secondly, white people cannot be victims of racism, and men
cannot be victims of sexism. Of course, both can be victims of discrimination, but racism and sexism
are terms used to describe the wide-scale systematic oppression of a sex or
race – something men and white people are yet to experience in the Western
world. It is difficult to compare a white person being called a ‘cracker’ to
the fact that black people are ruthlessly killed by American police so
regularly, and it is also ridiculous to compare men being placed in the ‘friendzone’
to women being murdered because of
the ‘friendzone’. By the way, the
friendzone does not exist - women do
not owe men shit for being decent human beings and no one has a right to claim
that anyone is a ‘bitch’ or a ‘whore’ for refusing to have sex with them or
being in a relationship with them. Also, the n-word is off-limits under any circumstances and cannot be compared to any
offensive names given to white people, because the word ‘cracker’ was not used
to justify oppression against your race for hundreds of years, nor was it used
to excuse the enslavement, rape or murder of your ancestors or families. White
people’s desperation to be able to use this word simply looks to me like a
desire to further persecute black people; it is more than just a word. It
connotes the lowest place in society, something that should be avoided at all
cost and something that should not be associated with anything good, hence why
it is unacceptable to be used by white people, and I would refuse to associate with
anyone who used this word unapologetically knowing the connotations attached to
it.
Thirdly, I used to be extremely passive and tended not to
get openly involved in situations of injustice, however, I now believe that the
only way we will ever end inequality is by fighting the cause of the oppressed.
As a white person, I have many privileges which I feel are necessary to
acknowledge – for example, it is unlikely that I will be treated unfairly or
stopped and searched by the police for no reason, my body and appearance is
largely more valued and glorified by mainstream media than the beauty of people
of colour, I cannot and will not be a victim of racism – which is why I try my
hardest to appreciate and battle against the lack of privileges other people
receive. I try my best to use any
platform I have to educate others or praise those who deserve it, whether it be
through my music, this blog, art or simply my conversations with other people.
I like to say I am against all forms of discrimination, but if an oppressed
person informed me that one of my views added to their oppression or was
offensive, I would listen and change it because my views are no more important
than anyone else’s simply because I have ample opportunities to voice them.
Furthermore, feminism is aided massively by expression
through means such as art, literature, music and the words and actions of
people. The recent boom in all-female bands or bands containing women (outside
of the riot grrl movement) is long overdue, and people are finally stepping
away from the idea of white-male dominance within rock music. To me, feminism
means taking the power back from those who have had it for far too long and do
not deserve it, and this is why the idea of punk rock feminist rebelliousness
is so appealing to me. My personal approach to it is that people can be who
they want to be, look how they want to look and should not conform to
societally-approved definitions of beauty if they don’t want to. If women want
to shave then they can, if they don’t then they don’t have to, bodies who are a
little larger or a little smaller than what is deemed as ‘perfect’ should be
appreciated so long as they are not unhealthy examples, the beauty of people of
colour, people with disabilities or transfolk who do not necessarily pass as
cisgender should be celebrated and that there is no true definition of perfect.
The beauty industry exists purely because people are made to feel like shit
about themselves, so imagine if people were taught that they were beautiful how
they were and could change aspects of themselves if they wanted to but didn’t have
to – a multi-million dollar industry would be put out of business. The feminist
belief system has the power to effectively change the world and links heavily to
the rejection of capitalism. This is difficult nowadays, and I am a hypocrite
for this as I own an iPhone and live comfortably, probably at the expense of
people in third world countries, but there should not be such a huge divide
between extreme wealth and extreme poverty and we should fight against heavily
capitalist political policies such as the constant dragging out of austerity,
the stigma against those living in poverty and the idea of economic elitism. The
basic gist of my beliefs include rejecting societal norms, working together to
overthrow the oppressors and saying a big ‘fuck you’ to anyone who goes against
the idea of power to the people.
To cut a long story short, if people stopped being shit to
each other the world would be a much nicer place. As I said, I still have a lot
of growing and learning to do, but these are the ideas I try to live by right
now, and as a result I have been much happier than I was a year ago and I
honestly believe I am a much better person. The past year has been an
eye-opener, and I can safely say that there are virtually no aspects of my life
that are the same as in June 2014. People change over time and I just want to
clarify I am no longer a dickhead.
