A Deeper Look Into Feminism

On my previous blog post  I talked about feminism and how it should be a common goal for everyone, and not a battle of the sexes.

Since the last time I posted a lot of things have happened in the media that relates to feminism. The hashtag #HowToSpotAFeminist has become viral. People use this hashtag to share their thoughts on feminism and express their thoughts, concerns, or even disagreement about this topic. It became more popular when people started to create memes and pictures that would appeal to a younger audience, and would catch their attention through humor.

Even though it's great to see people become vocal on this topic, new issues have arisen as well. A couple weeks ago a high school suspended a girl over a moderately modest dress because “plus sized bodies must be fully covered” As seen in the image below, the girls dress covered her up really well besides some cleavage which is something she can't help because of her size. “ #IAmMoreThanADistraction” is what I want to hear people like her say and share on social media. I want people to become aware that's it's wrong to shame women for their attire and their bodies. She can't change herself, so why should she be punished?

Earlier this week I sent out a survey on feminism with questions like “do you know what feminism is?” and “do you believe that genders are currently equal”. My results were something I expected, but still shocked me as well. 5 out of the 26 people I surveyed said they did not know what feminism was, and 4 out of the 5 people were males between the ages 14-15. 12 out of 26 people who took the survey said they dont believe theres gender equality, and unsurprisingly they were mostly women. For that exact same question, 3 out of the 26 people who were surveyed (excluding the 12 who said genders are not equal) said they are not sure. 2 out of the 3 were males. These results show me that many men are unaware of feminism, and is probably why they don't fight for it. My goal is to try to spread awareness and educate everyone, of all ages and genders, about feminism.

These results made me feel more aware of my own topic. This shows me that even though this is a topic i'm passionate about, I could still learn more about it. For my agent of change project I want to spread the hashtag #IamMoreThanADistraction all over social media, and to take photographs of girls and women with labels written on them so I can make digital posters for people to post on their social media with the hashtag.