Feminism and why you should give a shit.

Feb 10

Feminism?
What is feminism anyway?

Isn’t that some dusty thing Grandma used to talk about?
That chapter in a history book with a woman in oversized glasses?

Old.

Irrelevant.

Over.

Except it’s not.

(By the way, that woman with the glasses was Gloria Steinem)

Congratulations.
You can identify propaganda when you see it.
The spin.
The caricatures.
The deliberate effort to defang a perceived threat.

And what is that threat?

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Feminism:
the radical belief that women are human too.

Not less than.
Not half.
Not property.
Not helpless.

A woman whole and unto herself.

Not someone who needs permission.
Not someone who requires ownership.
Someone who can choose: a partner, a life, or no one at all.

And that?
That terrifies systems built on control

We’ve recently learned a new phrase that helps explain how this works: systemic racism—the idea that bias isn’t just personal prejudice, but something embedded into laws, policies, and institutions themselves.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the same is true of sexism.

In a culture comfortable with hierarchy and domination, hate rarely stops at one target.
Racism.
Sexism.
Ableism.
Ageism.

These aren’t separate problems—they’re symptoms of the same disease.

And the most insidious part?
We internalize it.

From the moment we’re old enough to toddle across a kitchen floor, we’re taught who we are, what we’re worth, and where we belong.

Television.
Music.
Advertising.
Social media.
Everywhere, all the time.

A little girl has a birthday.
You need to buy a gift.

What’s your first thought?

A doll.

Not because you’re cruel.
Not because you’re stupid.

Because you were trained.

“Girls want dolls
so they can practice being mommies.”

Then came Barbie—you can be anything.

And when women did become everything:
doctors, lawyers, engineers, leaders
they were paid less for it.

Depending on race, class, and industry, women earn roughly 60–80 cents for every dollar men earn for comparable work.[¹]

Why?

Not biology.
Not merit.
Not choice.

Sexism.
Misogyny.
Plain, structural woman-hating.

This makes no sense . . . unless control is the point.

Women make up over half the global population.[²]
Every single human being comes from a female body.

And yet we are taught to distrust her.
Control her.
Punish her.
Hate her—and ourselves.

Glass ceilings.
Rape culture.
Economic dependency.
Trauma layered on trauma.

All designed to keep women “in their place.”

In the kitchen.
In the bedroom.
Doing unpaid labor.
Providing emotional labor.
Pleasing men.

This is not accidental.
This is a system.

This is why feminism has never been “extra.”
It has always been necessary.

Because when power feels threatened, it tightens its grip.

You don’t have to imagine this.
You’re watching it happen.

In the United States, legal precedent that protected a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body was overturned in 2022.[³]

That decision didn’t reduce abortions.
It didn’t make pregnancy safer.
It didn’t improve maternal outcomes.

What it did was remove autonomy.

When the state can force someone to carry a pregnancy against their will, that is not morality.
That is control.

And control never stops at one boundary.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Legislation has been proposed that would restrict voting access through “identity verification” requirements. This includes matching current legal names to names on original birth documents.[⁴]

That sounds neutral.
It isn’t.

Who is most likely to change their last name after marriage?

Women.

This is how disenfranchisement works now—not with literacy tests or poll taxes, but with paperwork.
Quiet.
Bureaucratic.
Targeted.

And before anyone says “that wouldn’t really affect people,” remember this:

Women in the United States have only been legally allowed to vote for just over 100 years.

The 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920.[⁵]

That didn’t happen because men woke up one morning feeling generous.
It happened because women organized.
Protested.
Were jailed.
Were beaten.
And, in some cases, died.

All for the radical idea that they should have a say in their own lives.

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And voting was only the beginning.

In 1862, the Homestead Act allowed some women to own land.[⁶]
But ownership didn’t mean independence.

Until 1974, women in the United States could not legally obtain credit—
a loan,
a mortgage,
a credit card—
without a man co-signing.[⁷]

A husband.
A father.
A male relative.

A woman could earn money and still not legally control it.

So ask yourself:
How does one rent an apartment without credit?
Buy a car?
Start a business?
Leave an abusive marriage?

They often couldn’t.

These are not ancient injustices.
This is within living memory.

And the systems that once enforced those limitations never disappeared.
They adapted.

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So when people ask, “Why are they trying to roll women’s rights back?”

The answer is simple.

Because autonomy is dangerous to hierarchies.

If women can control their bodies,
their finances,
their votes,
their labor—

Then control evaporates.

And systems built on dominance do not survive equality.

This isn’t about political parties.
It’s about power.

Across history, authoritarian and patriarchal systems share the same priorities:

Control reproduction
Control labor
Control movement
Control speech

Women’s bodies sit at the center of all four.

When rights are removed, it is rarely done loudly at first.
It is framed as protection.
As tradition.
As “common sense.”

But the outcome is always the same:
Less agency.
Less safety.
Less freedom.

This is not alarmism.
This is pattern recognition.

You might think this doesn’t affect you.

You might believe you’re safe.
That you’re an exception.
That you’ll never need these rights.

History is littered with people who believed the same thing.

Systems of control do not announce who they will harm next.
They expand quietly, patiently, waiting for apathy to do the work for them.

Feminism isn’t about hating men.
It isn’t about dominance or revenge.

It’s about refusing to accept a world where anyone is treated as less than human.

You don’t have to call yourself a feminist.
You don’t have to march.
You don’t have to post slogans.

But you do have to decide whether silence is the price you’re willing to pay.

Because indifference is not neutral.
It is permission.

Additional Sources & Data

Global Gender Equity & Women’s Rights

United Nations – UN Women
– Progress of the World’s Women reports
– Global data on gender inequality, labor, political representation, and violence against women
– Used widely by governments, courts, and NGOs

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
– Gender Inequality Index (GII)
– Measures disparities in reproductive health, empowerment, and labor market participation

World Health Organization (WHO)
– Maternal mortality and reproductive health outcomes
– Impacts of abortion restrictions on health and safety

U.S. Wage Data & Employment Statistics

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
– Median weekly earnings by gender, race, and occupation
– Longitudinal data on wage gaps across industries
– Frequently cited in peer-reviewed research and court cases

U.S. Census Bureau
– Annual income and poverty reports
– Historical wage gap data
– Intersectional breakdowns by race and gender

Legal & Civil Rights Analysis

Brennan Center for Justice
– Voting rights restrictions and voter ID laws
– Analysis of name-matching requirements and disenfranchisement impacts

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
– Reproductive rights litigation
– Voting access and gender-based discrimination

Historical Context

National Archives (U.S.)
– 19th Amendment documentation
– Equal Credit Opportunity Act (1974)
– Legal history of women’s rights

Library of Congress
– Suffrage movement archives
– Women’s labor and property rights history

FAQ

Are you saying all men are bad?

No. Feminism critiques systems, not chromosomes. Patriarchy is a social structure that rewards dominance and control. Men can benefit from it, be harmed by it, oppose it, or all three at once.

If you’re reading this and thinking, “This doesn’t describe me,” good. It wasn’t written as a personal accusation.

Why does feminism still matter? Haven’t women already achieved equality?

If equality were achieved, it wouldn’t be this fragile.

Rights that can be rolled back are not settled rights.
Access that depends on paperwork, money, geography, or marital status is not equal access.

History shows that progress is not permanent and it must be defended.

Isn’t this just political?

Laws determine who can vote, who controls their body, who can access money, and who is protected from violence.

Calling that “political” doesn’t make it optional.
It just means it affects everyone, whether they engage or not.

What about men’s rights?

Men suffer under patriarchy too through violence expectations, emotional repression, economic pressure, and rigid gender roles.

Feminism names the system causing that harm.
It doesn’t deny male suffering; it explains it.

The tone feels angry. Why so hostile?

Anger is a rational response to injustice.

Discomfort is not the same as harm.
Tone does not invalidate facts.
Politeness has never been the engine of social change.

Why bring up history? That was a long time ago.

Many of the rights discussed here were denied within living memory.

If your parents or grandparents lived without full legal autonomy, that history is not abstract. It is recent and reversible.

This doesn’t affect me personally. Why should I care?

Every erosion of rights starts by targeting “someone else.”

A system that removes autonomy from one group does not stop there.
Indifference is not immunity.

Are you anti-religion?

No. This piece critiques the use of morality as a justification for control, not faith itself.

Any belief system used to deny human autonomy deserves scrutiny.
Any belief system used to protect dignity deserves respect.

What do you want readers to do?

Pay attention.
Question narratives that rely on numbness.
Refuse the lie that this has “nothing to do with you.”

That’s where change starts.

Luna Ravenwing