As a feminist, in today’s day and age, you’ve probably heard a lot (and I mean A LOT) of half-assed arguments about how you’re a “feminazi,” and how you fixate on ‘non issues,’ like rampant sexism in pop culture, the mythical wage gap, body image issues, menstrual taboos, abortion, slut shaming, LGBTQ+ rights, casual sexism, cyberbullying and trolling, and more. And, maybe, you’ve then been advised to chill out.
“You aggressive, jhola-carrying, bespectacled, cigarette-smoking, pseudo intellectual, possibly seditious, LSR-JNU student, you. Shut up about your ‘harmful’ stereotypes because no one cares.”
Recently, a viral meme on Facebook elicited at least one of the following reactions from a sizeable section of my social circles:
– “OMG he nailed it bro! These Indian Feminazi bitches need to shut the fuck up about their first world problems.”
– “Soo true. I hate when some women are like ‘oh my god we need equality at the workplace.’ Talk about real issuez, like… umm… Jasleen Kaur is a bitch.”
– “Oh these femeenist types yaar. So annoying. Gold diggers.”
– Uhh.. wtf?
Ok, so the last reaction was just us, but here’s the post for context:
Yeah. That.
Of course, being the buzzword that feminism has come to be in recent times, there is, understandably, a lot of confusion around what actually constitutes feminism. Or, rather, what it means to identify as a feminist.
Since people love being wooed with facts, figures, and dictionary-validated definitions, so here’s what Dictionary.com states:
An advocate of social, political, economic, and legal rights of women to be equal to those of men.
Basically, anyone who believes in the equality of the genders IS a feminist. You’re not a ‘humanist,’ or an egalitarian, or an ‘equalist,’ or an “equaliser.” Yes, we’ve heard that too. *SMH*
As such, no issue that stems from oppressive patriarchal structures and, thus, rampant sexism across class, caste, creed, and race is EVER a non issue.
But really, all of that aside, for those of you who just want to get straight to how the brilliant Tanmay Bhat nails every anti-feminist argument on the internet ever AND throws shade at despicable memes (such as the one posted above), we’ll let the wise gentleman take it away:
You go, Tanmay!