Feminism And What It Means To Me (An Ignorant Male)

-a Nathan Guerra joint

Do I hold the door open for her?  Despicable.  That question should never enter the brain of a living human man.  But that’s feminism.  Isn’t it?  I don’t rightly know.  And therein lies the rub (Shakespeare reference already? blech. IT GETS BETTER, I SWEAR!).  What the hell is feminism to anyone outside the world of feminism?  Should it be feared?  Possibly.  That doesn’t seem unreasonable.  Should it be embraced?  Probably.  It never hurts to broaden one’s horizons.  So let us (me) explore the male (egocentric) views on feminism (ladies first).

                Origin story:  I do recall burning bras.  That seemed to be of some real significance at one point in time.  Really sticking it to the man by giving men a better view of the things they’ve been angling to see since they regrettably invented the bra.  But I get it.  It was a symbol.  There was symbolism.  It symbolized something.  I have no idea what that was, but it led to women in the office, I think.  Melanie Griffith made Working Girl for a reason, right?  So the way my man brain puts it together, burning bras led to women in the office and that was the beginning of feminism.  That is, of course, if you ignore the time the women went into the work force while the men were at war, but that was just women being bad-asses and not really an example of feminism (foreshadowing).

                Present day-ish:  Surprise I opened the door.  That’s a weird thing to see in a lady.  But that seems to be one of the resonating after effects of what was a bolder form of feminism.  A feminism of Christmas past, dragging chains and frightening old men (Chuck D. reference (Charles Dickens, not Public Enemy)).  But that era has come and gone.  We now exist in a world where men should open doors for women because it’s gentlemanly, NOT because he’s exerting dominance and showing greater worth through primary door entrance rights.  And I guess that means we exist in a world where feminism isn’t necessary.  Instead we just have countless women making names for themselves and basically proving to be bad ass beyond predictability.

                In the year 3000:  Women are just bad ass (kind of the theme here).  The future is a world where everyone just acknowledges that women are not capable of doing the same things as men (wait for it), but instead capable of doing amazing things as women, independent of the need to be compared to the opposite sex.  The future of feminism is women looking back and laughing at a time when “movements” were necessary just to further their rights.  Feminism will just be an idea, a reminder to change the world for the better with every opportunity (lady and dude alike. weird, I know. wow, there’s a lot inside this parenthetical note. is this even allowed?).

                The only way I knew how to convey my thoughts on feminism was through humor.  But while there were jokes (really?), I almost feel like I might have meant some of those words.   I do think feminism started off as a bold and somewhat radical (what did the bras ever do to you?!) movement.  And then it evolved into a more direct, and driven campaign for women’s rights.  Now, it’s a thing that needs a better Public Relations rep., as I have no idea what form modern day feminism has taken (hence the necessity of this website).  As for the future, I hope feminism is not as necessary of a thing.  And I mean that from the bottom of my ignorant man-heart.