For "Non-denominational Celestial Being’s" sake, it is 2017, why are we still talking about women? We can vote, we can work, we can sit in class with everyone else, what is all this yelling and protesting and walking down Court Street mostly nude about anyway?
I cannot speak for all women, lets get that out of the way. I’m one of a whole bunch of female identifying individuals. This is me, conjecturing on some shared pain and where the hurt might come from.
If you’re curious, if you genuinely don’t understand what might hurt someone moving through the world as a woman, thank you for reading this. Listening is a political action, and you’re doing a good job right now. So let’s get started.
Here’s the thing that stinks about being socialized — meaning being raised by the individuals around you to exist a certain way beyond your control — as a woman.
Women are groomed from birth to live as second choices. Women are told, again and again, to be quiet in a world that values people who speak out. Women are told, again and again, to facilitate the growth of a group in a world that values individuals.
Women are told, again and again, to do care work (raising children, educating, caring for the sick and elderly) in a world that values production. Women are told or shown or forced to “act like ladies.” The ideal woman, a frenemy that changes shape for women across cultural, economic and age divides, is often a woman who embodies things the world doesn’t “need”.
Society tells women, young and old, they are to be beautiful (how superfluous), caring (how weak), quiet (how unimportant), flexible (how lacking in stability), apologetic (how annoying). To be perfect, women must play a character society has no interest in promoting.
So why are we still talking about feminism? Because the punishment for being a “bad” woman is just as harsh as the punishment for being a “good” one.
Feminism is about asking different societies to either value what they raise women to be, or letting us raise ourselves into people who are valued. To have it both ways binds female identifying individuals. To have is both ways punishes anything that is “feminine.”
Can you imagine a world where no one cared about other people? Where no one listened to others talk? A world where everyone acted out of self-interest? Where there was no beauty? Where there was no give and all take? No education, no hospice, no nurses, no caretakers? Where everyone grows up in houses instead of homes?
Now, can you imagine a world where people are paid less, raped more, sexualized always, because of how their family, their friends, their teachers encouraged them to be? Can you imagine living every day of your life in that reality?
I talk about feminism because I don’t want to live in a world without kindness. I talk about feminism because I’m tired of living in the world you can only imagine.
Olivia Cobb is a junior studying English at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to ask Olivia more about the importance of feminism? Email her at oc721313@ohio.edu.
