In Defense of Feminism

My new growing understanding of feminism has led me to reflect upon how people have twisted the movement and attached various stigmas and stereotypes. My background experience with the term in colloquial usage occurred most frequently when people would make some flippant comment about how "women belong in the kitchen" (or something else unbelievably bigoted along those lines) and I would rebuke them and then faced the term "crazy feminist" being thrown back into my face. I have noticed that people have mentally pigeon-holed the movement to some extent and might even connote it with bra-burning-man-haters, which certainly went out of style along with the mullets and bell bottoms that were also the rage at the time. Another misconception that I have come across is that people think that "feminism" has become synonymous with "female supremacism" which is clearly not the case and never was part of the agenda, yet people claim to be turned off to feminism because that is how they perceive it.

Even when people asked me if I was a feminist I couldn't help but instinctively feel like I needed to present a rationalized justification if I decided to answer yes to that question, which struck me as sad and disturbing because I didn't feel like I should have to passively or apologetically stand up for a movement I supported. I have now learned in further depth that feminism is a multifaceted movement that at the core is promoting EQUALITY for all women, everywhere and in every aspect of life because there is currently oppression across the spectrum of existence and at various levels in societies around the world.
If I had to distill the most prominent lessons I have learned thus far they would be as follows:
1. Feminism and the struggle for equality cannot be approached by only one aspect or examined in one context because it extends into all facets of life.
2. There is nothing at all "obvious" "natural" or "inevitable" about GENDER because it is a product of whatever social/political/cultural system that you are examining the concept within...more on that next week....