Saturday, January 4, 2014

Why I Need Feminism

Hello Hello, lovely creatures.
Today, on this particularly insignificant day I will be writing about a very significant topic. I am, as mentioned before, a feminist. But, it wasn't some random decision I made just so I could say
"I'm a feminist" and parade around with my misogyny-hating proclamations. I do have a root to my decisions.
I am a very ambitious person. I know where I want to go, what a want to do and become, and exactly what I have to do to get there. I genuinely enjoy thinking about my future, and so I asked my table mates one day where they see themselves in 20 years. I told them where I see myself, giving a specific description of my job, hours and the salary I hope to make. The rest of my table all asked me the same  question:
"What about a relationship"? They had all explained in detail the kind of relationship they see themselves having, and not so much focus on their profession. One of my friends even told me that in 20 years she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, pregnant with her third child. I was so shocked that a table full of girls/women/female things my age all thought about their future in terms of the relationships they'd have, and not the strides they had made themselves. This is why I need feminism. I don't plan my life around relationships and I don't look foreword to my wedding. I look foreword to my first job, and getting published one day, and the fact that my ambitions not involving relationships  shocks people is why I need feminism.
I need feminism because I don't want to be expected to be married by 25, and popping out babies within a few months of that. I need feminism because my decision that I do not want kids should be accepted, and not brushed off as a "inexperienced teenage nonsense". The fact that I don't see myself married in 20 years is not sad or an expression of low self-esteem. Just because I don't want to be a housewife doesn't mean I'm not a "good woman". This Is not the 50'! Women don't wear aprons all day with their hair in cute updos, waiting for their husband to come home. The very fact that people talk to me more about my future, beginning with the "When you're married..."made me the feminist I am today. I don't fantasize about my wedding day, and what color bouquets I would have. I feel that romance is not something to plan and focus on. I know that if i just go with the flow of things, and do what I'm doing, I'll meet someone and sparks will fly or whatever these hopeless romantics go on about. But honestly, I really don't care right now. I just want to live, and work hard and get places. I have a dream like any other girl, though perhaps a bit more filled with feminist activism and anti-patriarchal work, and I feel that I should be able to plan my life without thinking about who I want to have on my arm without shocking people. Until women not wanting children, and finding the life of a housewife unenticing, I will rant and be a feminist and sing my anti-misogyny songs to warm the hearts of this patriarchal society.

Goodnight humans
Panteha

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