Although I have taken a couple English and social studies classes where we have read and spent a little bit of time on the topic of feminism, we have never fully gone in depth about it. To be honest, the terms 'feminist' and 'feminism' aren't the usual things that I talk or even think about until I took this class. For most of my life, I never really cared to even try to understand feminists and their actions. When we think about the word 'feminism' or 'feminist', many people tend to cringe at the thought of women over throwing men and ruling the world with women power. The word 'feminism' is not just about women empowerment and standing up for other women. The meaning of feminism is the belief that women and men should have equal rights, whether it be political, economic, or social equality, so, even men can be feminists. I feel like I can never fully understand the topic of feminism because I feel like it's such a broad topic; there are so many types of feminists (that I have never even heard of until recent research) fighting for their own causes. But I believe that we owe so many thanks to feminists because they have fought for so many things just so we can have rights and choices in life.
Growing up as a young Hmong American woman in the United States, some of us girls are still trapped in the traditions of 'respect' for our parents and elders, and where some of the older generation still believe that men have more privilege than women—so, our voices go unheard. But, as more of us have become more Americanized, many women are finding their own voices and speaking up for themselves, so, I am grateful for having rights. After reading the first chapter in TC, I just believe that no matter who we are and what our background is, we should all be treated with equality and equity.
Although I still don't know a whole lot about feminism and feminists, some of my goals for this course is to gain more in depth knowledge of what I already "know" and maybe to learn more history of the many movements that occurred.
That's very interesting how your culture sort of affected how you were treated or what you were told, verbally or not, about what a woman should be and do. I'm looking forward to hearing more about your perspective, especially since I've never had that kind of experience myself (full-blown american culture over here lol)
ReplyDeleteYou raise an important point about how folks fear that feminists want to overthrow the world...why do you think this is so scary for some people? And why is a movement for equality so often misperceived?
ReplyDeleteI was raised up with the same values and I couldn't agree with you more. Our voices do go unheard and I think it will always be like that. I think we've just all accepted it and have moved on from it.
ReplyDeleteI'm a pessimist myself but that seems like a pretty pessimistic way to look at it, don't you think?
DeleteBeing from your cultural background I know how it's like to feel the way you do. I still don't understand why girls are treated the way they are.
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