Has too many meanings given to the cause of feminism ruined the basic aim of the movement?
Feminism is actually supposed to be a movement that would help uplifting women in the society and bringing them at par with the rest of the society, especially men. Hence, it actually means empowering women and making them equal to men. In the many events that have taken place in the past and recent past in relation with women empowerment and feminism, the movement has been misinterpreted in many different ways. Also different individuals have their own decipherments of the movement’s basic objective. Thus, too many meanings given to the cause of feminism have ruined the basic movement.
Another huge problem is that people have mistaken pseudo-feminism as feminism. Pseudo-feminism, almost antonymous to feminism, suggests that men and women are definitely not equal. Women are rather superior to men and deserve more respect in the society. Hence, pseudo-feminism is wrong and absolutely not the correct theory as it’s objective is wrong in itself. Those who do not actually know the meaning and true motive of feminism end up becoming pseudo-feminists rather than feminists, thus smudging the image of the two. As a result, people who witness pseudo-feminism take it to be feminism with their lack of information which ruins the basic aim of the movement.
It also results into people forming a bad impression of feminism because it declares women to be more powerful than men in place of both being equal. Mainstream feminism is also called Liberal Feminism which suggests that women shall be politically supported by changing the framework to ensure equality of men and women. Other than that, we also have Social Feminism which advocates for social rights of women. It describes the women suffrage movement that took place in the nineteenth century.
People, without even knowing the base of feminism or the various kinds of it with their explanations, tend to support pseudo feminism, some by knowing, some unknowingly. This is the main reason behind the decay of the movement which could bring a lot of change for the better of women if it had not been molded negatively. Now, it is the time to correct pseudo-feminists and not only prevent them from mistaking pseudo-feminism for feminism, but also punish them for misguiding the population with the wrong meanings of something so serious and big. Let us all be feminists and make this world a better place, not pseudo-feminists.
A woman myself,
Shubhangini Shaktawat