Do we need Feminism?

FREYA POTTER, member of FemSoc, tells The Tab why Feminism still needs talking about

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Too often I hear people say “I believe in equality, but I’m not a feminist”.

Feminism is simply the belief that men and women should be treated as equals, why would anyone not want to embrace this? The problem is that the word ‘feminism’ has been hijacked by those whose power it threatens and the age old caricatures still persist. Others argue that men and women are equal now, so why do we still need feminism?

LUU Feminist Society‘s ‘I need Feminism because…’ campaign highlighted a huge range of reasons. “I don’t want to walk down the street and get harassed”, “I’m still taught to hate my body”, “4/5 of Parliament are male, what’s democratic about that?” Whether it’s on campus, in society, or in national politics, Leeds students clearly feel that feminism is relevant to their lives.

We took over 100 photos in just a few hours and looking back through them it’s hard not to feel inspired, however reading some of the comments will bring you straight back down to earth. Anyone who doubts that women still experience sexist and misogynistic abuse can go and look at the evidence right there, and probably sooner or later at the bottom of this article. It leads me to ask, why do men, and it is overwhelmingly men, feel that they have the right to insult women merely for voicing an opinion? Clearly they feel threatened by so many students, of all genders, challenging sexism right on campus.

Freya in action

Offline, the abuse is even more random, if you’re a woman I’m willing to bet that you can think of a time you’ve been catcalled or insulted in public. If you’re not, ask your female friends. Last semester as I was walking home from Uni a group of men drove past and shouted “slag” at me, and our society accepts this as no big deal, some would even argue that a catcall is a compliment. It’s not.

Our campaign on Thursday coincided with ‘One Billion Rising’, a movement against the fact that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped in her lifetime. On the same day Reeva Steenkamp was violently killed. The Sun then sexually objectified her on the front page of their paper, forgot her name, glorified her death and we were given yet another reason as to why we still need feminism.

In just one day we were shown so many different reasons as to why feminism is vital for women all over the world. In whichever way they experience sexism and misogyny, whether through a lack of representation, verbal abuse, or the most extreme domestic violence, women are unable to avoid it, and that means that those who witness it cannot fail to ignore and fight it.

To read about the FemSoc campaign click here and to see the rest of the photos, click here.