#FEMINISM on STEEM

in #feminism7 years ago (edited)

FEMINI-STEEM

The FEMINI-STEEM discord server was set up as a place initially for entrants of @beanz International Women's Day Contest to nominate their posts or the posts they find and recommend to win.

With the help of 6 judges

@bluefinstudios, @shadowspub, @dcardozo25,

@battleaxe, @angelveselinov, @idenkcall

We will be working our way through the hundreds of entries to find the best of the 3 categories.

  • Videos
  • Art
  • Writing

If you are working on an entry for the contest please be aware that there is only 6 hours left to enter.


So far the contest has been a huge success with entries from both men and women from many different cultural backgrounds. It has been incredibly encouraging and heart warming to see so many different perspectives of feminism in the one place. We've had some perspectives from young and old, male and female, Christian and Islamic, mothers, fathers, lgbt people and even a porn director.

My hope is that when communities are launched that there will be appreciation for the many perspectives and respect for the different stages of feminism which exist from one continent to another and the issues they face.

Feminism has never really existed as a "community" before, but has been more like many communities as part of individual movements which collectively make up one of the waves (eras) of feminism. Sometimes there are even groups or communities who claim their agenda is feminist while other feminists can argue that their agenda is actually anti-feminist. For example the third wave feminism issue of freedom to express sexuality is arguably contradictory to the issue of self objectification and dehumanisation of women in the media. The adult industry is another self contradictory issue within feminism where some feminists want to empower women in the sex industry and reform the "male gaze" to something more sensually appealing to women, while other feminists see it as a toxic industry for women regardless of those sex workers who are lucky enough to be treated very well by their directors and employers.

The co-existence of issues like these means that feminism doesn't have a clear direction or agenda. There is no black and white and there are no clear-cut answers. It is far too broad of a concept for every feminist to be on the same page, and yet many assumptions are made about people who identify as feminist by people who are less educated on feminism and only experience it as propaganda. Keep in mind that more than 90% of the world that we see comes from the media - social or not - all media outlets are regulated by centralised authorities and even in social media we who use it use filters and propaganda similar to the mass media. The media will have you believe that feminists are making demands of you to change your ways. And of course, in some places people are doing that while using the "feminist badge" as their claim to superiority. Despite all that, the truth is that identifying as a feminist does not define any of your personal beliefs or values apart from one.

WOMEN ARE PEOPLE

and should be treated as mans equal

...

This is regardless of whether or not you acknowledge the inequalities of the present world.

Note : Feminism can mean a theory or a movement. Activism is the use of direct actions in opposition to or support of a cause. There are feminists and there are feminist activists. One uses confrontation to force change, the other uses awareness to educate and inspire people. "Desperate times call for desperate measures." But chemotherapy won't cure a cold.

SOME OBSERVATIONS

As mentioned already, the contest entries covered a vast amount of perspectives of womanhood and feminism. The title "What it means to be a woman" and "Women who inspire me" both brought expressions of appreciation for femininity. I want to address this first by saying thank you for recognising the value of these qualities, but secondly by reminding you all that no woman should be expected to fulfill the characteristics being prescribed to women.

GENDER PRESCRIPTIONS

What is gender?

In some places you will find gender defined as being either male or female. Unfortunately in these cases gender is being mistaken for sex. Your sex is determined by your chromosomes and this determines whether you are male or female. However gender is a (wo)man-made selection of characteristics brought together to compliment one another and then be prescribed to the sexes to which they are considered more suitable.

Consider the table below for the traits prescribed to each gender, then ask yourself if you can assign yourself completely to one side and not to the other. Notice that for most of the traits listed, you cannot be both traits in the same row at the same time. Although the characteristics are almost all as likable as the counterpart in the column next to it, you can see that there is one clearly more self serving while the other is more useful to have around you.
MASCULINITYFEMININITY
stronggentle
toughfragile
insensitiveemotional
self-reliantaffectionate
heroicvulnerable
rationalsensitive
focusedattentive
competitivereserved
ambitioussupportive
athleticelegant
dominantcooperative
constructivenurturing
assertiveaccommodating
egotisticaltruistic
technicalconversational

The cultural construction of gender would have occurred over many centuries. Gender became more and more defined with the growth of globalisation, the spread of religion and there's been growing emphasis ever since the beginning of the age of information. Before all of this, gender only existed as a tribal construction, the emphasis or importance of which would have varied from tribe to tribe.

The hunter / gatherer theory is only based on our own biased presumption that the roles we have today are natural and therefore males and females must have been designated separate roles. It was assumed for many years that the vikings who fought and pillaged were only male until recently. Anthropologists now report a significant percentage of the armed vikings were women.

There's nothing stopping a woman from choosing traits from the box of masculinity and it won't make her any less of a woman. Although a man or my children might appreciate the more emotionally serving characteristics of femininity, I will personally appreciate my competitive side, my constructive side and my ambitious side and I should never concern myself on whether this is at the expense of a suitable partner who might prefer more availability. Similarly, any man who accepts the traits that he has which happen to fall into the list under femininity is no less of a man. It takes great strength of character to appreciate these characteristics which appear to be underappreciated by others around you.

For anybody who's reading this uncertain that they can be any of these "masculine" traits without losing their "feminine" beauty, or fear losing respect by embracing your "feminine" traits, ask yourself is it more important for you to have the respect and love of somebody else or to have the love and respect of yourself. Ask yourself irrespective of the gender they are prescribed to, which should you be teaching your sons and daughters. And why treat them like a social experiment by raising them differently.

Finally, I'm not asking anybody to change who they are. What I attempt to do is to make people aware that feminism is about freedom. There are values in both traits on both sides of the gender spectrum, and there are times when one is more useful than the other. Balance would be ideal, but we are only human and so we can't be perfect. As beautiful as the "Super women" appreciation posts are, it is a lot to expect of women to be that way. We are in fact imperfect.

So whoever you are, embrace it.

Whether you are male or female, whether you consider yourself a man or a woman, whether your traits are masculine or feminine, embrace them. Because they are just made up designs that do not restrict you.

FEMINI-STEEM

Sort:  

WOMEN ARE PEOPLE
and should be treated as mans equal

.. well I'm a feminist then ;) I never admitted this before!

One thing I didn't get: If a woman is strong and tough and rational etc... that would make her masculine ?
Not sure if I'm getting this right ..

PS: Khaleesi is great choice, no man (or woman probably), from her world or ours, didn't fall for her in love and/or war.

If a woman is strong and tough and rational etc... that would make her masculine ?

These traits are considered masculine, and there is no redefining masculinity and femininity. They are defined by these characteristics and then mistakenly prescribed to people who are far too complex to fit comfortably into these roles. Technically yes, you could say everybody is a mix of femininity and masculinity, and I may identify more with the masculine side of the spectrum. The point is that I am still all woman, and I don't allow these prescriptions to influence my sense of identity. Neither gender roles should be allowed to restrict me or my (hypothetical) children.

So you're saying that having "masculine characteristics" make you more masculine but not less of a woman.

You're messing with the "men are masculine, women are feminine" rule in my mind ..

This is a thought-encouraging post (and comment) It needs some time to settle ;)

You're messing with the "men are masculine, women are feminine" rule in my mind ..

This is the exact rule feminism is against.

Yo soy muy masculina y no por eso dejo de ser mujer, @hazem91 te implementaron desde muy chico que las niñas deben usar falda y los niños deben jugar con carritos y esto es muy lamentable, ¿si tu lloras crees que eres menos hombre? El movimiento Feminista no es solo para mujeres, Desde mucho tiempo el hombre también es reprimido "porque debe ser un hombre y no debe llorar, y no debe pintarse el cabello y no debe expresar sus sentimientos con nadie y tiene que tener muchas mujeres para ser hombre" Esto es absurdo, Conozco muchos amigos que han tenido que serles infieles a sus mujeres porque la sociedad lo tacharía de menos hombre si no lo hace y eso no es así... El feminismo no es que el hombre pueda tener menstruación, o que la mujeres deba salir a la calle sin franelas por que los hombres lo hacen, Gracias al feminismo la mujer tiene vos y voto en el mundo, Sin este movimiento las mujeres no podríamos aspirar a ser presidentes, a ser deportistas, a ser astronautas o pilotos.

Certainly, at some point in her life, the woman is forced to submerge herself in a certain circumstance (by choice or by her own decision) characteristics that are supposedly inherent to the masculine gender, which does not make her any less feminine, on the contrary, it allows her to value herself more before herself and before others, obtaining for her the respect and love that every human being must have for himself, and the respect and consideration of others.

This is awesome.
Feminism rocks!.
Although some are newer than others in the discussion/movement.
Everyone is still welcome to air their views in support of women's rights and gender equality.
I'm glad to be a part of #feministeem.
And I loveeeee Khaleesi😍.

"There's nothing stopping a woman from choosing traits from the box of masculinity and it won't make her any less of a woman" - my favourite part and I wish all the people could understand and accept that. thanks for sharing!

no matter what sex you are, it is time to wake up, to live on the basis of respect and empathy, equality and union, God loves us all and needs us all together to create better generations, where equality abounds, this topic is great and I am very clear that judges have a great job.

I think many have confused our struggle ... we do not seek privileges, nor treat us as men, because we are simply not men, we are human beings and as such we deserve respect and the same opportunities

Exactly. The only part of this post I have trouble with, it this having to be equal to men. Or having to be treated like men. Let's be treated as human beings.

Agree. Why not just think that being different, because we are different, makes us complement each other. I do not want to be treated as a man, because I do not need to be a man to demand respect

I loved these text really say consistent things about all of the media that have been eternally regulated entities that want to encrypt people to filter conduct they consider, I always say that bigger is your library , your TV will be smaller.

This contest has awakened the idea of feminism in steemit, a lot of participation and good entries I have read several and the contents are very inspiring.

Great post! Hopefully we can get this post out of the negative soon!

With my delegation recently lost, I couldn't give this post the upvote it deserves. But I think you know, @beanz, how strongly I support this.

HELL YES and amen to a place for feminism on Steemit! We're going to do everything we can to contribute to this account bolstering its rep and achieving its goals. 💓

You've been featured in the latest Ladies of Steemit Curation: Strength in Community. Keep up the great work!