Gender Roles, Feminism, and Personal Ranting

The blurring of the "feminist" label in pop culture is troubling to say the least; creating a culture that looks down on crusaders for equality is incredibly disgusting. The fact that the name had to be defended in our discussion today was evidence of the utter perversion of the term. Gender equality is nothing to be scoffed at. The oppression of someone for their biological traits has manifested itself throughout history before: does racism ring a bell? There is no reason that those opposed to gender equality are any less backwards than those opposed to racial equality.

When speaking of gender equality, sexual orientation usually is an accompanying topic, as it was in our class discussion today. Whether judged by chemical make up or personal identification, sexual orientation and identity is a problem that, as with feminism, is often belittled by close-minded fools who aren't comfortable with themselves. The definitions of masculinity and femininity have become much less stratified as time has passed, creating, to some extent, a society that is much less confined to gender roles than previous generations. Clothing has become more unisex and occupations have been largely unbound from the "Separate Spheres" ideology that gripped America for so long, as two examples of a much more widespread cultural trend.

The discussion today quickly transcended into a shot at defining gender through exemplifying objects and actions as male or female. Doing so is impossible; everyone has varying levels of acceptance for non-traditional choices, and some items and actions can even be argued for either gender. To me, the whole discussion raised one answer: we must disassociate gender with certain sets of characteristics. People should do whatever the hell they want however the hell they want without having any limitations placed on the because of their gender. This is obviously a very open approach, but why not? The world would be so much happier if people truly felt free.