Feminism: A Rant

As you've probably inferred from the title of this post, today's entry will not be like any you've read before. The following words are brought to you by someone who is VERY AGITATED.

Over the years I've been in community college and here at BYU-Idaho, I've participated in many class discussions on the subject of feminism, both in literature classes and history classes. Today we were starting our feminism unit in one of my English classes and I was early to class, so I sat down and was talking to some of my classmates. We were talking about how feminism is a really touchy subject for a lot of people, and some of my classmates were somewhat nervous for today's discussion. One girl, who'd been quiet up until this point, finally said: "Yeah I'm not looking forward to this, cuz I'm like...basically totally anti-feminism. I wanna be able to stay at home and take care of kids and stuff!"

The other people I was talking with didn't seem to think much of this statement and the discussion continued, but I just about lost my cool. I wanted to slap my palm to my face and just GROAN. And I also wanted to tug the wool off of her eyes and bluntly explain that guess what? 

Wanting to be a homemaker does not make you anti-feminism.

This may come as a shock to some of you, since the popular belief is that feminism=bra burning parties and being labeled a man-hater. While those standards may have been true of second wave feminists, we in the modern world are part of the third wave of feminism. 

Among many other things, third wave feminists believe that women can do ANYTHING they want to do, without being degraded or viewed negatively for their decisions. 

You want to become a business owner and take the world by storm? Great! 

You want to stay at home and raise children, cook, and clean? Good for you! 

You want to become a stripper? Congratulations! 

No matter what your decision, the fact is that you get to CHOOSE what you want to do with your life, without feeling pressured by anyone to follow a certain path.