I interviewed my friend; Shelby Butler, she is a 20
year old woman. She has had many life experiences that lead her to believe that
she is a feminist. She thinks the society is male dominated, and women should
be more recognized. She wants respect and equal rights. She thinks a woman can
do whatever a man can do. She says, she thinks the most major problem is sexism,
where woman aren’t recognized as much as a men. As she explains to me, there
are many ways to define feminism, but it also has a lot to do with what type of
life experiences you have went through. Shelby says it’s at least a common
ground where women and men can give equal rights to people of inequality. She
says, she mostly sees these inequalities of the domination of a man, because
she is a white woman. She says, she understands that there are other
inequalities for others, but she mostly sees it with men domination. Shelby
says, that she talks with other men about this subject and that most of them
are in denial of the situation and think women have the same rights as men do.
In reality they really don’t, it’s proven in our society that males hold the
power. In Peggy McIntosh’s articles she explains that, “Denials that amount to
taboos surround the subject of advantages that men gain from women’s
disadvantages” (McIntosh, 1988, p. 75).
When
she noticed that she started to become a feminist was around the age of 13. She
says, she was more of a tom boy and outspoken. Shelby wanted to do the things
that the boys do. She says, she is still the same to this day. I noticed that
she doesn’t always “do gender”, in the appropriate way she is more masculine
then feminine. She knows how to act like a lady, but most of the time she
chooses not to. So she gets a lot of repercussions for not doing so. She
explains to me that when she dresses more like a lady she is treated way
different than when she is dressed more masculine. She told me an example that
she has noticed is when she goes to the store and is dressed more like a women
she notices more men opening the door for her, but when she dresses more like a
man she notices that no one helps her with the door if so it rarely happens. In
Judith Lorber’s article she states that, “Everyone does gender without thinking
about it” (Lorber, 1994, p. 126). I agree with the author and Shelby, most
people don’t even think about “doing gender”, because it was instilled into
them as a child, and the people around you don’t notice because that’s what
they think is normal. People think that women should be more feminine than
masculine, but that doesn’t always happen.
Shelby
says that she loves being a feminist because she loves being independent and
not having to depend on anyone besides herself. She considers herself hard
working, and always trying to make lives for women easier. She also believes
that there are a lot of downfalls of being a feminist. Like how sometimes when
you become outspoken too much there are repercussions for those actions. Like
how she complains to her manager that it’s unfair that the men get to do stock
while she gets stuck cleaning the bathrooms. At her job the men do not have to
clean the bathrooms, but the women are not allowed to do any stock at her place
of employment. When she complains to her manager, the manager always explains
to her that women should clean the bathrooms because it’s the easiest job,
while the men should get the harder jobs. She believes that both of the tasks
are hard and that either the man or the woman should perform them. From the
article Judith Lorber written says, “Whatever a task is done by women it is
considered easy, and where it is done by men it is considered difficult
(Mencher 1998, 104) (Lorber, 1994, p. 127). Lorber disagrees with this statement, but this
is what men think about women. That women are weak willed and can’t do what men
can do. Inequality will be a problem for many generations until everyone including
the media change the preconceived notion of what being a woman is. Even though
things have gotten a lot better it’s going to take many more to come even if
that will ever happen.
Citations
Lorber, Judith. (1994). “The Social Construction of
Gender.” 126-128.
McIntosh, Peggy. (1998). “White Privilege and Male
Privilege.” 75-82.
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