Is feminism irrelevant in the 21st century?

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so, this could get spicy XD

Google defines feminism as: “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.”
Many people today will say that Feminism is no longer necessary. Women have all the rights they need, don’t they? Others will state that with rising awareness of sexual assault and other forms of misogyny, that feminism is more necessary than ever, and that the fight should not be let die out now.

So I ask, Is feminism irrelevant in the 21st century? @Discussions @Debaters

Personally, I understand that this is a very complex topic, so my answer will do its best to equate to that.
I don’t like the term feminism. I don’t call myself a feminist, and it is unlikely I ever will. Personally, I view the term as outdated. It was created in a time and place where only two genders were acknowledged, and one of which only barely. Today’s world is vast in the definition of gender, especially with the cultural differences that come with it. Simply calling it ‘feminism’ and ‘support of women’s rights’ is no longer enough in a fight for gender equality.

“No one is equal until we’re all equal” is one term I like. We cannot fix the gender divides in society without also fixing the racism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, fatphobia, and countless other prejudices as well.
I am at a social disadvantage due to my gender. I am not a woman, yet I was raised as one, something that will remain with me for a lifetime. I am not a woman, yet I need a say in things wrongly described as “purely and concerning women, and concerning every woman”, such as periods and abortion. I was never and will never be a woman, and yet the social disadvantages that ‘women’ face are things that I also face as a result of my upbringing, genetics and presentation, something which is uncomfortable to admit to myself, but true nonetheless.
So basically, I believe that calling it feminism is just far too narrow minded. The world is no longer a binary. It’s no longer just women vs. men, trying to equal each other. We need a new term, one like gender equality, if that makes sense.

Anywaysssssssssssss
That’s my take, please comment your own below!!

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I prefer to call my self a womanist but still calling it feminist is bad even though now we recognize more genders than boy and girl.

First of all as google says

feminism advocates for women´s right but most importantly rights for all genders (modern feminism/womanism included nonbinaries, agenders etc too) feminism was created for women and girls to fight for their rights and equality for all genders. That is why it uses the world fem (female) and womanism used wom (woman). This would be like saying we should create a new word to include men in the feminism/womanism name because feminism/womanism also advocates in a way for men´s right.

Feminism is not outdated, though I will never call myself one.

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Google said this not me
I didn’t mean to say feminism was outdated, more so the term and the way people often interpret it
Other than that I agree with all ur sentiments lol

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to continue with some more points.

  • Feminism was created to be a safe spot for girls, cis and trans girls included.

*it was created to argue against all types of gender norms (be it girls boys or nonbinaries)

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kk let me change it

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Feminism is still relevant. Just don’t go overboard.

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I don’t think it’s irrelevant. The idea of feminism basically advocates “equal rights for both women and men”. What’s wrong with that? :eyes:

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I do agree with the part “it’s no longer just man vs woman”. And they really need to come up with a newer term which is universally inclusive. Gender equality might be nice alternative.

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Yes, yes.

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I don’t think it’s irrelevant because it’s needed in certain countries. I’m not a feminist but I do understand some perspectives of the feminist side. But I wouldn’t say that certain opinions aren’t based on a feminist view, I mean I do agree on stuff like:

  • Abortion
  • My body, my choice
  • free birth control

Idk, I don’t really pay much attention to feminism that much. I don’t agree with free bleeding (please don’t look it up, it’s gross), free the nipple (I don’t care if you agree with it, none of my business).

Sl*t walks? I’m pretty sceptical on this. I do agree that women should wear whatever they want but the whole message of SW…not much to say.

In all honesty, I find it stupid when people like to conflate everything with feminism when you’re just giving out your opinion. I’m more about common sense and logic than certain side, I’m more of a centrist than left or right. The right wing of the political spectrum are absolutely cringe, bunch of echo chambers!

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Nope, they don’t :upside_down_face:

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I know, it was a rhetorical question highlighting the views of some people

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Yeah, I knew

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Feminism is definitely not irrelevant in the 21st century and I think alot of people don’t realise it isn’t so black and white. There are different kinds of feminism and some do more harm than good for example “TERF’s” and “SWERF’s” (due to this being in the PG13 section I won’t be talking about SWERFs here so if you want to know, you can PM me or catch me in the RS).

Obviously with the existance of TERF’s and their exclusion of trans people this creates a very relavent issue which is still being talked about, JK Rowling for example, a large author is still alive and promoting TERF ideologies now in the 21st century. It only becomes irrelevant when it’s no longer an issue. I feel like alot of people confuse irrelevance with not caring, you can feel as ambivalent towards a situation as you want but that doesn’t take away it’s relavence or the affect it has.

Now, feminism as I see it, should be about rights for all which for many people it is, I’ve often seen the phrase “sisters not cisters” which I think is good, we shouldn’t exclude trans people from equal rights issues.

Feminism is also still relavent because there are many places where abortion is still illegal, workplaces where there is still a gender pay gap (they have ways of working around that), the glass ceiling is still very much present. I see sexism everyday and when it’s pointed out you always find somebody saying “men have problems too” nobody is saying they don’t and saying this when people are trying to talk about womens rights is basically trying to talk over people trying to express issues that affect them this is still a very very relavent issue.

I just want to add and clarify that the patriarchy causes issues for many different groups of people and negatively affects men too so I’m definitely not saying that men don’t have problems that can be covered by feminism. My issue comes from people only saying “men have problems too” when women are trying to talk about their problems.

As I said before, feminism should be about equal rights for all genders and to many people it is. But to some others it isn’t because there are so many different beliefs people have that all come under the term feminism and all of them are relavent, some are good, some are bad, some are harmful and some are really helpful. But all of them are relavent.

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I can probably go more on depth in this later but rn I’ll say that I like feminism and think that it does advocate for equal rights for all.

But in terms of just women because oftentimes that is the focus, I can’t walk alone anywhere without being scared. I just want that kind of thing to change… stuff like trafficking… (ik men get it too but like women more so need to look/watch out). So yeah, I think it’s relevant- especially to empower/protect women and other minorities.

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I couldn’t agree more.

I swear people only want equality when it suits them.

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Added sexism tag

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Closed due to inactivity