The discrimination of women in the world is still a real problem, despite our huge strides against it, especially in the last few years. Change has occurred, but just not enough: The UN Women’s Treaty was put into effect a few decades ago, as a convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and yet we still live in a world where misogyny and sexism are daily occurrences. One would think that the women’s empowerment movements that have been going on, especially on social media, where it has even become a trend to be an advocate for feminism, would help rid out society of prejudices and gender discrimination. Though progress has been made, the efforts are still too small to provoke a change in the in comparison gigantic nuisance engraved in society’s minds.
In a world split in two, one part being the digital world, feminism has become somewhat of a trend. The digital age has brought gender discrimination awareness to many, giving women a place where their voice can be heard creating a community full of supportive women looking out for each other. Yet with the sun, rain, even storms follow: Starting with the need to fit in, the need to fight for some kind of purpose, feminism has taken a course of its own on social media. Faux feminism, as some like to describe it, is a negative use of feminism, only using it to specifically hurt or attack others, all in the name of “feminism”.
We women face misogyny in our everyday lives; if it’s at our workplace or administrated by numerous men – we’ve all experienced it. The deep-rooted sexism in our society can take on many forms, commencing with random cat callers on the streets and portraying us as sex symbols, reaching extremes like prostitution as a form of slavery. Whatever it is, if it’s a simple remark made by someone or the wide gender gap all of us women are influenced by, however little this may seem, it is important to acknowledge it for what it is: this is the only way we can hope to cleanse our world of discrimination not just against women, but also against men. The point of feminism is to be equal, not better.
A female myself, I am sick of experiencing sexual discrimination on a daily basis. I am sick of seeing it in the media, seeing how people view women as property, a thing to be used. Do we live in a man’s world? Not anymore. Nowadays, we live in a dog-eat-dog world, all of us fighting for our own interests, fending for oneself. Because if even for a moment, we accept the prejudices and sexual discrimination against us, we take a step back in history, encouraging inequality. Let’s show the world that history doesn’t always repeat itself.
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