It is 2016 and at this point feminism is a word in everyone’s vocabulary, though half of the United States does not even know what it means or what they are talking about when they say things along the lines of “Calm down feminazis.” I recently read a misogynistic article written by a woman named Gina something. I can’t remember her last name but that is okay because she is irrelevant. She wrote an article titled “I am a female and I am so over feminists” which is a confusingly contradictory jumble of random examples that build to no concrete point whatsoever. Gina begins her article with “I’m all about girl power, but in today’s world, it’s getting shoved down our throats. Relax feminists, we’re OK.” So first things first Gina, a feminist is someone who believes in equality. Do you understand how equality happens? Through awareness. Do you understand how awareness happens? Through recognition. Do you understand how recognition happens? THROUGH SPREADING THE WORD! (Oops sorry, I shouldn’t have typed in all caps, that was very feminist and angry of me.) Anyways, there is no such thing as having an equality lifestyle. You can treat others equally, sure, but how do you get others to treat you equally? Do you just simply wait for them to come to the realization of equality since it is just some “opinion”? No. You do not, Gina. People do not just come to epiphanies like “I should treat women better!” Spreading feminism means promoting equality—you cannot shove feminism down someone’s throats! That is not a thing, but you can spread awareness about gender equality. Also what do you mean by “we’re OK”? Who exactly is ‘we’ Gina? Is it just you? The whole point of equality is to leave your own selfish agenda, and when you say “We’re OK” you have proven your failure to recognize this.

The article then states “Women have never been more respected. Women have more rights in the United States than anywhere else in the world.” Okay here’s the thing—just because women are treated better here does not mean we are equal. That is like slapping a child who is eating a cookie and saying “at least you have a cookie. Some kids don’t have cookie. So don’t complain about the slap. I can slap you whenever. Be grateful for your damn cookie.” I had a conversation with someone who said how American girls are lucky that all they have to complain about is ‘date rape and catcalling’ because in other parts of the world women are ‘real raped.’ So the next time a man follows you and keeps making passes at you and possibly touching you, just remember, you can’t speak up about it nor stand up for yourself because somewhere else, another woman is being raped and killed. Bullshit. Just because women have gotten to a point where they can walk through the streets of the United States a little more safely, does not mean we should just settle.
Moving forward, Gina talks about chivalry. Ah yes, the c word. “Whatever happened to chivalry? Why is it so old fashioned to allow a man to do the dirty work or pay for meals? When a man offers to pick up the check or help fix a flat tire (aka being a gentleman) they become offended. There is a distinct divide between both the mental and physical makeup of a male and female body. There is a reason for this. We are not equals. The male is made of more muscle mass and the woman has a more efficient brain. The male body is meant to endure more physically while the female is more delicate.”

Oh Gina. So many bad points in such a little paragraph. First of all, what does having muscle mass have to do with any of the things you just listed. Does picking up a check really require muscle mass? You do understand that a man is not LITERALLY picking up a check, right? You do realize that he is not doing arm reps with it…right? I also doubt that a woman needs muscle mass to change a flat tire. Secondly, this whole “gentleman/nice guy” trope really needs to retire. The reason that feminists don’t want guys to ALWAYS pay the bill is because money is an important part of a relationship and if the guy constantly insists to pay and scoffs at the idea of the girl paying, what does that say about him? It says he thinks he defines and controls the relationship. This is not a stretch. So many guys feel entitled to women because they are a “nice guy.” To quote an amazingly feminist tweet I have seen: “Girls are not just some vending machines that you put kindness coins into and expect sex to come out of it.” Thirdly Gina, you say the woman has a more efficient brain. Well I find this inaccurate, but even if it were accurate, then why are women getting paid less for jobs if they are smarter? Why are female scientists not taken seriously? Why are women thought of as just bodies rather than a body holding a brain? These are all questions that feminism takes on.
One might think that the ignorance stops there, but Gina surprises us all again! She discusses how women should not be in the NFL with the point of: “Can you imagine being tackled by a 220 pound linebacker? Of course not. Our bodies are different.” Well do you think that the average man would like to be tackled by a 220 pound linebacker? No, he is also just as incompetent. But if a woman wanted to join the NFL, obviously she would understand that she needs to be strong. Just like a man joining the NFL would need to be. I think that women can be just as strong as men but men are just more encouraged to be by society.

Let’s continue and power through Gina’s awful article. She eventually goes on to say “While I can understand the concern in regard to money and women making statistically less than men do, let’s consider some historical facts. If we think about it, women branching out into the workforce is still relatively new in terms of history. Up until the ‘80s or so, many women didn’t work as much as they do now (no disrespect to the women that did work to provide for themselves and their families—you go ladies!) We are still climbing the charts in 2016…we’re doing a kick-ass job, let’s stop complaining.” Oh okay, so since women got the privilege of making a living over thirty five years ago, I guess we are still in some sort of transition period? What exactly do you mean Gina by ‘still branching out’? So women can’t get paid the same amount (not to mention the significant gap for women of color, #intersectional) as a man because we are still in some blurry transition period that began 35 years ago? Also, yes women are doing a kick ass job. That we can agree on…BUT! How do you think we climbed the charts without feminism? Do you think this shift just magically happened without fighting? Also if women are doing a kick ass job, why can’t we get paid the same?

Gina then poorly wraps up a poorly written article by saying “There is no ‘dominant’ gender. There’s just men and women. Women and men. We coincide with each other, that’s that. Time to embrace it.” So there is no dominant, but you just said that men are entitled to get paid more, pay for everything, and dominate business, sports, and relationships? I don’t know much about anything but I do know that I go to a great high school full of other feminist teenagers and any one of us can tell you that your article is invalid crap. Do better next time, Gina. Please learn that being feminist does not make me any less ‘female’ whatever the hell that means.