Let's Talk Feminism

After sitting with a couple of my female friends discussing the pitfalls that can happen in the journey through life, a lot of things became clear in my head. How come it’s ok for a man to take off their shirt in photo shoots and in public, but for women it’s inappropriate? Why do male football stars get paid tens of millions of pounds a year, whereas a professional female footballer earns an average of £65,000 per year? Why is it that less than 10% of the Executive Directors of the top 100 companies in the UK are women, and the rest are men?

Feminism is still obvious in our society, even though some people try to ignore it and say that women are “biased’? We are in a world where the majority of the richest people of the world are men. And if a woman appears on the Forbes rich list - which is not as often as men - it’s because she’s inherited the money from, gosh, a man?  It is obvious that we still live in a world where men are in charge, and that needs to change.

This is the current the day situation in a western society; think how bad it would’ve been 100 years ago. Things have changed, but at a snail’s pace.

What about all the women in developing countries? I recently watched a documentary about picking tea, where the situation of women workers was raised. They get paid less than £1 a day and get sexually abused by the supervisors? What about the wives in countries in the Middle East, whose husbands don’t allow them to go and work, because their duty is to stay at home? It’s situations such as these that make me angry; no person should feel like this, neither man nor woman.

These issues have also been brought to the surface in the media. As a huge Harry Potter fan, I have admired Emma Watson since I was in primary school; I remember even doing a presentation in P7 to the class about how she was – and still is - my favourite celebrity and one of my role models. When Emma did her first speech in New York City at the United Nations Headquarters as a UN Goodwill Ambassador in September 2014, launching the He for She Campaign for gender equality, I was completely mesmerized.

Yes, she looked gorgeous as ever in head-to-toe Dior, but that was not the reason I was left full of admiration. It was how she told so many stories of her own life where gender inequality has been present, and how she related that with everyone who saw her speech. She is so intelligent and so knowledgeable, and you can really feel that when you watch her speak. If you haven’t seen this speech yet, please watch it before I go red in the face telling you why you must watch it. I’ll even be an angel and link Emma’s speech here.

I honestly can’t believe that we are living in the 21^st Century, and we are still living in a world where women are judged by what they wear and where they work. And it’s not just men who judge us; other women eye each other up, making little remarks in their minds about what that girl is doing, how she is acting stupid or wearing a piece of clothing that they consider “slutty”. I cannot express how much I hate that word. It totally degrades women, and turns us into sexual objects, which we are not. Why can’t we as women compliment each other, build each other up and say how beautiful we are, instead of pointing out how our bums look massive in a dress that we actually like to wear.

It starts with people respecting each other. I may not be a judge, but I know when something is not right, and needs to be changed.  Gender inequality needs be changed. The end.

Happy Bonfire Night everyone!

Love,

Em x