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Mentorship July 25, 2017
Embrace the message of equality.
What do you tell people who still think everyday feminism is ridiculous? How do we convince them that “feminism” is not a dirty term? Misunderstood is more like it, since people tend to fear the unknown.
ENTITY has gladly taken matters into hand, listing the most important feminism words in the English vocabulary.
Check out these words we strongly encourage you to learn, recognize and burn in your brain. Trust us, it’s for your own good.
USA Today reported that “the number of people looking up the definition of ‘feminism’ spiked after Kellyanne Conway gave her own definition of the word stating, ‘There’s an individual feminism, if you will, that you make your own choices… I look at myself as a product of my choices, not a victim of my circumstances. That’s really to me what conservative feminism, if you will, is all about.’”
Fortunately, we have fact checkers and the good ‘ol Merriam-Webster dictionary to set the record straight when it comes to defining the very term that forges both women and men on the path to freedom. The definition of feminism is “the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.”
How about that, Conway?
Let’s break this one apart. Mansplaining is when a man explains something under the false context that he knows more about that subject than the person he’s speaking to.
Author Rebecca Solnit hilariously recalls the countless mansplaining experiences she’s encountered in her published work, “Men Explain Things to Me.” She provides a sarcastic, yet very real reflection of what it’s like to be a woman living in a patriarchal world.
Also, Mansplaining, is a real word in case you were questioning its legitimacy. According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, mansplaining occurs “when a man talks condescendingly to someone (especially a woman) about something he has incomplete knowledge of.” He may also mistakenly assume that he knows more about a topic than the person he’s talking to.
Hence, man explaining = mansplaining.
The broad definition of patriarchy is a society, institution or family where men hold a disproportionately large amount of power.
This term is unfortunately used to describe the society we continue to live in today, where women systematically have a disadvantage according to their gender.
It’s also the very reason why feminism is so important to understand so we can incorporate these practices into our everyday lives.
The female gaze is a feminist theory that provides a space for women to free themselves from the male-constructed images that have dominated and defined femininity throughout history.
Traditionally, we’ve seen this through the male gaze, in which images in advertising, film and media take on the prospective of a heterosexual male by exploiting female sexuality.
The female gaze that allows women to take back their identity by reflecting their own perspectives and attitudes in art.
The word “intersectionality” was added to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary in April of 2017 as “the complex, cumulative manner in which the effects of different forms of discrimination combine, overlap or intersect.”
It ultimately describes how discrimination can overlap according to an individual’s various social identities.
This concept acknowledges that we’re born into different races, classes and genders, each of which impacts how we’re treated.
Let that be a lesson the next time you see or hear a person question the legitimacy of these everyday feminism words. Learn them. Love them. And embrace the message of equality.
