Susan B inspires me
On the 17th of October, we visited Susan B Anthony's house, where we learned a lot about feminism in the USA, but there's more...
Where Feminism all started...
The first wave of feminism in the USA began with the Seneca Falls Convention (that was hold no more than an hour away from Rochester!), on the 19th to the 20th of July 1848. It was the very first women's rights convention held in the United States, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott (both abolitionists). It was held to discuss the social, civil, and religious rights of woman. The Convention was made exclusively for women, general public being invited on the second day, as Lucretia Mott and other ladies and gentlemen addressed the Convention.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights..." (extract of the preamble)
The "Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances" then detailed the injustices inflicted upon women in the United States and called upon U.S. women to organize and petition for their rights.
Several different waves followed, for example in the early 60s with Betty Friedan's book coming out, in which she explicitly objected to the mainstream media image of women, stating that placing women at home limited their possibilities, and wasted talent and potential, to finally get to what is commonly called the "fourth wave".
... and where it is now
The fourth wave started around 2012 and has for main tool social media. This wave focuses on justice and opposition to violence against women. It challenges misogyny and further gender equality through Youtube, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, whose recent #metoo movement had for goal to denounce sexual abuse, and had a worldwide impact.
However, although more and more people are beginning to understand the true definition of feminism in the USA, and openly identifying with it, there has always been a negative stigma attached to it. Part of this problem is the way our media sensationalizes things, sometimes passing the most radical and extreme versions as the standard which often depicts a feminist as a man-hater who hates lipstick, and crinkles her nose at stay-at-home moms.
Indeed, feminism is frequently associated with man-hating in the United States, as many people keep in mind the man-hating statements of so-called feminists.
"I feel that 'man-hating' is an honorable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them." - Robin Morgan (poet born in 1941), Ms. Magazine Editor
"The proportion of men must be reduced to and maintained at approximately 10% of the human race." - Sally Miller Gearhart (writer born in 1931)
Today, one of the American feminists' most important tasks thus consists of detaching such impressions from the Feminist movement, to reestablish an image that is all about freedom and gender equality.
Being a feminist doesn't mean thinking women deserve special rights; it means knowing we all deserve equal ones!