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anotherbrickinthewall
Feminism - more harm than good?
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I was reading this article in the Guardian about feminism. Or, to be more exact, about how this phenomenon may not have as many positive effects as its early activists hoped it would have. I mean, sure, there are quite a lot of advantages that women a 50 years ago could not benefit from. But how about the disadvantages?

Let's see... Well, I remember reading one interesting comment to one article in the online edition of the Times (sorry, I don't have the link and I'm not sure what the article was really about - whether it was about jobs, relationships, the stressful life we are all living today or maybe all the three of them, I cannot say for sure - but that's not the point here)... The thing is one of the readers of the article felt that feminism had made life harder for women and easier for men. That was a strange idea, I said to myself at first. He continued saying that men did all the hard work in the past and all women did was stay at home, cook a bit, do the housecleaning and take care of the kids, while men went to work and earned the money to pay for the food that was put on the family's table. Nowadays, however, most women (in Romania, at least) still have to cook, take care of the kids, do the housecleaning plus go to work.

More than that, 50 years ago, women did not have to go through so much trouble finding a husband and getting married, because marriage was profitable to both the wife and the husband (more profitable than being single, that is). Now men can hire a housemaid and for the rest of their needs one night stands are just fine (not to mention, avoiding the monotony - no longer the same, tired wife).

July 1, 2008 | 5:08 AM Comments  4 comments

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Paulyne Paulini Turagabeci
July 1, 2008 | 7:13 AM
Point taken
I am a feminist. I see what you mean but I also think that women have progressed a long way since a half century ago. I do wonder how life would be like for women now if there never was a feminist movement in the first place. I doubt we would be any closer to Utopia than we are now though.
ioanap Ioana
July 1, 2008 | 9:09 AM
:)
Paulini, you are right. We mustn't forget the changes that feminism has brought about - I mean the positive ones, which, hopefully, are more important than the negative ones. Feminism has given me the right to chose whether I want to be a housewife or not. I'm not saying that being a housewife is bad - it is just that I think I can offer more by using my intellectual abilities.
It's a funny thing - I keep noticing this anti-feminism current nowadays - in the British press and in the Romanian one as well. And it's not just an article or 2 every half a year. I think I read at least one each week.
thank you for your comment! :)
Bellis Amanda
July 2, 2008 | 3:08 PM
redistribution of responsibilities is a part of feminism
I think what makes feminism contradictory to its purpose is when rights are allocated to women but responsibilities are not given to men. By that I mean that feminism for me at least doesn't involve merely giving women the right to vote, and work and all other civil liberties enjoyed by men but it should also include a redistribution of tasks that were originally seen as a womens job. Without a redistribution of the work involved in cleaning, taking care of children and other jobs traditionally regarded as women's work feminism can be seen as a negative, and does result in increased workload and perhaps have a general negative impact on women.

I also think feminism should include a women's ability to tell her husband what they expect to be responsible for in a relationship and what is acceptable to them as their responsibility. Without that kind of understanding and agreement on the man's behalf to be aware of his wife and respect her wishes then feminism does fail as a means to better a women's life.
ioanap Ioana
July 2, 2008 | 3:40 PM
good point!
@Amanda
Yes, redistribution of responsibilities is part of feminism, but I think it's hard for some men to accept that and do it.

Feminism has brought about quite a lot of good things for men (according to that person who left a comment on the article in The Times) - now they don't necessarily have to waste their time investing in a relationship or marriage so as to have sex and, if they are married, they don't have to carry the burden of being the only person bringing money into the family home anymore. Everything has turned out quite good for them.

My personal opinion is that in some cultures, where the distinction masculine/feminine is very important, it's difficult to ask men to take up part of their wives' responsibilities - they see that as degrading, as affecting their manhood.
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