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FEMINISM: A TEENAGER’S PERSPECTIVE
Feminism has long been associated with the extreme versions of it. She hates men, she doesn’t shave, she doesn’t want to marry, she doesn’t believe in the bible and its teachings, and so on. The moment anyone hears the word “feminist” the first thing that comes to their mind is anything but the feminist agenda.
Women and men are different, they have different hormones, sexual organs, body physique, and so on. Socialisation has exaggerated the differences. Being female in Nigeria and many parts of the world today has been relegated to marriage and femininity. Anything that goes outside that isn’t regarded as female.
Growing up, I am constantly reminded that I am female and that I am going to be a wife someday. Someone gave me a piece of unsolicited advice, “even if you are not enjoying the work act like you are. Remember you would get used to it in the future”, what I could interpret was that I should pretend. No wonder we have young women who have turned pretense into an art form.
When it comes to rape, I’m so disappointed in many Nigerians. There was an incidence of rape where a man in his sixties, raped a ten years old girl thrice. The comments I read were maligning, some justified the act by saying he was old and needed a companion and it seemed the ten years old were a perfect match. When raising girls we make them cater to the fragile egos of men. We have somehow accepted the idea that men are savage beings without control. How can you forget the horrific and dreadful act that has now changed that young girl’s life forever? It is obscene!
When two couples go out on a date the person who is more likely to pay is the man. I recently came across a post that stated ‘If a man has two million and his wife has six million, the rent is one million who should pay?’ a lot of people suggested the man should pay. What if our attitude was who has more should pay? Then the burden wouldn’t be more on the men, he wouldn’t see the need to go out of his way to please the woman.
In the world, there are slightly more women than men, women make up more than half of the world’s population but most of the powers of prestige are held by men. The person who is more likely to lead is the person who is the most creative, cerebral, and innovative, and no hormone attributes to that. Imagine how far the world would have gone if the brains of half of its population weren’t secluded.
We have evolved but it seems to me that our ideas on gender haven’t evolved. Feminism itself aims to make itself redundant. We must all work together to change the narrative. We must start now! Imagine how much happier and truer we would have been to ourselves if we didn’t weight gender expectations. The problem with gender is that it prescribes who we should be rather than who we are. The reason why I started my blog is to share stories of men and women changing the narratives to see that gender is better in the nearest future and also stories around the world to humanize people. Stay tuned!
What's on sekyen's mind. 