RebelPhoenix
I work in mysterious ways
Just to add, anyone who thinks 'things are pretty equal' and that feminists need to shut up because we got what we wanted is sadly mistaken. I live in London, a thriving place for culture and diversity and one of the places you would think things are equal. Well, quite frankly that's bull shit. Traditional sexism has been countered in terms of having complaints structures and mechanisms for accountability in institutions but they are not particularly effective or efficient and chauvenism runs as rampant as ever and within women too.
Also, feminism has taken a serious back burner to racism and sexism in regards to homosexuality when all have very similar arguments but feminism is not taken as seriously especially not in practice. For example, take the entire 'lower staff' in offices e.g. secretaries, receptionists, PA's and office juniors, the vast majority are female and in an office where ever woman might be over 25 people in positions above that sector and clientel refer to them as 'girls' and everytime someone asks where's that girl, you know the one with etc and you give them a blank look and say there aren't any girls here or try to find the lady they're talking about and use the word 'woman' instead you get a look of scorn as in 'you knew what i was talking about, no need to be extra'. That is so annoying, a whole sector of women being belitted linguistically when it would be just as easy to use thr right language if it is indeed a woman and not an 18 or under girl, but then people go on about being politically correct and how it's a waste of time. It's only a waste of time when it doesn't apply to you, calling a woman a woman and not a girl isn't about being politically correct or extra it's about simply talking a female who is over 18, what is so hard about that? Now, if it was a black man or black men across the spectrum of the sector being called 'boys' it would be taken more seriously.
The above example might not have seemed that serious but it was only general chauvenism that I was outlinging and I'm trying not to go into too much detail or I will easily write a thesis hence I really only want to touch on a few points plus there are other posters here who can and have added alot to the topic. Other example would be that new measures are automatically received with a defensive reaction for example, rape and sexual assault are cases that are constantly met with the backlash 'but any woman could accuse a man of raping her then when the cow was just leading him on' or whatever but that is an extreme reaction which doesn't do justice to the women who do need help from the law and it undermines everything especially since rape and sexual assualt are so hard to prove anyway and to diffrentiate from sex especially if there aren't or are little physical injuries sustained. It is easy to accuse anyone of anything but rape cases are notoriously difficult to even get to court and 9/10 hospital samples from women never get to court and recorded rape incidents only increase year by year. People need to remember that most sexual crimes are committed by men on women and men upon men as well as crimes particularly serious crimes having being committed over recorded time and estimately before that by men in the majority.
I had to give up a job because of sexism in the workplace a year ago and it was ridiculous because it was nice place, a decent job and the people were nice except... yep you guessed it, a large percentage of men in the company would make rude comments and have chauvenistic conversations and expected the women in the workplaec to just put up with it because it was all 'joking'. That is a common excuse used in the working world but it doesn't justify the behaviour at all and women as well as anybody else in any other 'group' who might be made a joke of shouldn't have to put up with it at all, it's not professional and it's not part of your job to have to listen to it or have it paraded in front them. If people have those prejudices or want to make those jokes they should do it in their own space and tiem with people who share their humour, not make the whole office hear it. Where I worked was a firm of engineers and yes even with the encouragment for women to go into science and engineering fields the numbers are still low (another tangent I could explain but wont because the post is getting long as it is) and all of the engineers and their managers were male and the women in the company were all referred to as 'staff' who basically consisted of receptionist, accounts, help desk and administrators. Now the male managers could be nice and polite as anything but during the course of the day they would start with the sexist one liners and metaphors constantly saying things like 'two words: bedroom and kitch, that's where women belong' etc to put you in your place in a debate or as a 'joke' and expect you to take it and when you argue back they just added more sexist remarks instead of arguing properly. Plus if you didn't make tea you were rude and out of order, yet it's not your job to make tea for them but if you're going to it's polite to ask around in general but shouldn't be expected to etc and all of the women except the two main administrators were sick of it and when I finally complained about one person in particular she told me 'that's just the way he is, he doesn't mean it, just ignore it'. I told her that I could just ignore it but why should I, I don't come to work to hear or be talked to like that and not just once, it's everyday and she couldn't see why I was so pissed off. I also said that if he had made a racist remark to me that it owuldn't be tolerated and she didn't hear me and said, 'he was racist to you???' When? What did he say?' and I was like there you go, I didn't say he was racist to me but if he was it would be taken seriously like your reaction just now showed me. At the end of the day though, I was the expendable one and he wasn't so I left and the other women hated it as well but didn't want to risk their job security by complaining because it would be misinterpreted as being uptight and can't handle the working world etc when it's just wanting to be able to get on with your job without that. Yes you'll come accross challenges and pressures whilst working but if you can't legitimately complain then no, things aren't pretty much equal.
In regards to the women's attitudes involved, from the ones who were scared to the one who thought I was making a big deal out of nothing. There are plenty of women who perpetuate sexism and chauvenistic attitudes by their lack of concern, ignorance or fear, many women complain about feminists as well and say they are over the top, that they need to stop going on now, we got our vote etc but they are either just trying to appear cool, more personable to male peers, are ignorant or haven't experienced it - which is one small mercy at least. The annoying thing about those females however is that without feminists of the past and feminists of today who continue to move equal opportunites and equal ideals into practise from theory and have them actually work, they wouldn't be able to run their mouths the way that they do and having to hear them put down feminists is just galling. But at the end of the day there are plenty of women, girls and in some cases men and boys (e.g. domestic violence, rape, sexual orientation or transformations, paternal rights etc) out there who do need the help in small or large ways and thankfully there are still feminists willing to fight for them.
To lil bitchiness: personally, I am an upholder of many different social rights platforms, not just limited to women but very strongly for each and I'm glad you pointed out the different levels of feminism and what it's about more clearly because there are so many common misconceptions about feminism. I've been a neo-radical feminist since I was 8 years old 🙂, no one forced or persuaded me into it, it's just something I came accross and found out about because I took alot of prejudiced shit in general for different areas and I styled the term 'neo-radical feminist' myself and it's stuck lol 🙂.