I’ve just had the funniest conversations that made me really think about myself. The conversation went like this.
I walk in to the playground and I see a couple of the parents talking and I’m asked, ‘you’re a feminist right’, now at first this made me laugh and then I said, ‘you could classify me as a feminist’, at which point the other parent said, see I told you that there was still some around.
Now I won’t go in to the why’s right now, but there was a few from me. Yet, it did really make me think.
Am I a feminist?
What does it mean to be a feminist right now?
Now I could do my usual google search but I’m not going to. This is about what I see to be a feminist and if I consider myself one of them.
So, what is a feminist?
I believe a feminist to be a person, man or women, it doesn’t matter, that stands up for the rights of women.
Am I a feminist? Yes.
However, is there more to it. I believe in the rights of all people. If you only believe in the rights of women, then surely that means that men’s rights are lost and this is something that I don’t believe in.
Let me explain this, as I feel lots of people are shouting in damnation right now. Men having the right over women, that’s not a right, that’s control and that’s something that I do not believe in and would fight against. Women having the right over men, again a big no no. But people being given the skills, support and opportunities to play on a level playing field that I agree on. But it’s not just a male female thing, it’s a race thing, a financial thing, a political thing, a cultural thing.
I believe that no man, woman or child should have the power over another. Every human should be given the same opportunities and the same support, guidance and skills to be able to take up those opportunities.
This means that a child who is born in to a family that drinks, takes drugs and has never worked a day in their life and lives on one of the worst estates in Britain, should be supported the same way that a child born to a family who has highly educated parents, that are loving and caring and live in a very desirable neighbourhood.
Now the first child is going to need a lot of help and support and it’s not just a case of funding or education. It’s a case that they need to be shown care, love and help to develop their confidence, help to understand that they have opportunities and for those opportunities to be right for them.
The second child has already been shown this by the parents, it’s a given that they can take opportunities because they have already seen their parents do the same and if they struggle they have their parents there to guide them through it just like they did.
Who does the first child have to show them direction? Sometimes in a rare moment this might be done by a teacher or a friend’s family, but this is rare.
Is it the governments job, no, but it is their job to support organisations or people to be able to help these children.
Some in fact a lot of people believe in survival of the fittest. Now the fact that the first child is still alive and going to school or in fact not in care shows how much of a survivor they are and in fact are far wiser and far more determined than the second child because they have had to fight all their life. Now surely this is someone worth fighting for.
The same goes for a women subjected to violence by a partner, or a family subjected to harassment by a neighbour or a country subjected to a dictator, the list goes on.
How we deal with it as humans is what makes us.
So in answer to the question am I a feminist? No I’m a humanist.
