Feminism is not dead, but Colgate seems to think it is

    An idea presented in chapter four was that many people think that feminism is dead, or that its usefulness is a thing of the past. It is this that I would like to focus on for the majority of my post, because just the other night my friend group stumbled into a very heated debate concerning just this, and feminism in general.

    I feel like the best way I can go about it is to just present the different ideas that each of the people in group had. This isn't so much as to vilify them so much as to simply highlight the extent of differing ideas that exist on this campus and in our nation. It all started when the word feminism was said, and my friend, "Person 1", said that anyone who says they're a feminist annoys him. I had a problem with this, so I questioned him as to why, and that's how the argument began. These are the varying opinions that existed:

    Person 1) (From Pennsylvania) Feminism is an annoying label that people try to make into their identity. We shouldn't even be having this debate, because everyone has the same exact opinion on feminism, that both genders should be equal. We argue about it for no reason. 

    Person 2) I'm from California. Labels don't exist there, so I think it's stupid to talk about feminism, because that prescribes to gender binaries and highlights inequalities. 

    Person 3) (From Connecticut) Only the intense feminists get media attention, so that's what you base all of your opinions on. You can't say that feminism is annoying if those are the feminists that you are basing your opinion on.  

    Person 4) (From New York) There will always be gender inequality, due to the sheer biological differences between us. That's why I think it's stupid to focus so much attention on feminism, because in the end gender equality can never be fully fixed.    

    Person 5) (From Connecticut) Whether or not inequalities can fully be fixed, we need to focus them. Even though recognizing the inequalities does support gender binaries, it's important to first support them so that we can fix them, and then we can work on dismantling them. Equality must be achieved before binaries can be destroyed. 

    Clearly, there is a huge discrepancy in opinions among the Colgate population. People are rife with misunderstanding about feminism, and most of their aversion to it comes from simply not understanding what it is. A lot of my friends thought feminism was all about making women super powerful, taking their opinions only from the very vocal minority that the media gives its attention to. After this discussion, many of them left with a different perspective of what feminism is, and a few even said they wanted to take a women's studies class. I really do think everyone needs to take this class, purely for the eye opening aspect of it, and the fact that changing perspectives can really be as easy as one discussion.