Banned From Behind the Wheel

After growing up in America, it is hard to believe that there are people in the world that are still fighting for their rights from the government. Here, American citizens have the same rights, male or female, but the same cannot be said for other countries. Gender disparities in rights and laws are most prominent in North Africa and the Middle East. One particular inequality takes place in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s strictest countries when it comes to women and family rules. They usually stem from religion (which is something I’m going to look into). However, one law in the country has recently been heavily protested.

Women cannot drive.

They cannot drive. I do not even want to think about how my life would be if I could not drive now, let alone for the rest of my life. This ban on driving limits women in everything they do. Granted they are allowed to drive in emergency situations, such as driving a family member to the hospital, but other than that they are not allowed behind the wheel.

In the last five years the women of Saudi Arabia have been voicing their unrest through social media. In fact, is October of 2013, sixty women took the wheel and documented it. Videos were posted on youtube and pictures were sent out on twitter and instagram. This brought in a world wide audience. Finally the struggles of Saudi women were receiving recognition. Within the country, the police did little to stop the protest. No women were arrested and it was mostly internally ignored.

However, in December of 2014, two women were not ignored. On the first, Loujain al-Hathloul and Maysa al-Amoud were arrested for driving and put in jail. After a month of being locked up (the longest for female drivers in the history of the country), the women were put on trial to be tried for terrorism charges. These are the first women to have such extreme charges (a woman was sentenced to 10 lashes in 2011, but had it revoked by the King). Loujain and Maysa are not being charged because of the driving, though. They are being charged with terrorism because of their acts on social media. The specifics of the case have not been revealed, but the idea is that the women have gone against the ideals of the country’s culture and government. The verdict for this case has not been reached yet, but hopefully the courts realize that terrorism could and is so much worse than two women behind the wheel of a vehicle.

(Loujain al-Hathloul driving before her arrest)

There is evidence that Saudi Arabia is leaning towards changing the ban towards women, but this leaning could take a long time. The only way for these women to get their right is to keep it in the world wide discussion. World wide pressure can quicken a government to take action. With the majority of the world having equal gender rights, it should not be hard to get a rise or change in Saudi.

This has just been one of many differences of men and women in other countries outside of North America. I plan on looking into others and finding the root of the problem. As for Saudi Arabian women, I hope they continue to fight peacefully for their right to drive. It is a simple act of independence that all humans should have. 

Article on Loujain and Maysa Here. 

#Meninism

It seems to be that the only logical response to straw man, modern feminism is a movement that works to further the equality of the highest social class in the world, the white man. In mid November of 2014 an anonymous twitter account was created-- the name, Meninism. It started and mostly continued to post sarcastic,witty, and mostly funny jabs at feminism and the female stereotypes.

I will admit I have been following the account since I first saw it. At the beginning it was because the tweets were funny. They made me laugh out loud and became some of my favorites. I took them as sarcasm and humor, but the same cannot be said for some of the population. In two short months meninism has taken off. While some tweets with the hashtag are still full or sarcasm, some people, mostly white male teens, are taking it as the truth.

The tweets aim to point out the unfair standards women hold men to, such as having to be over 6 feet tall and being put into the friend zone. Other tweets make absurd rape jokes and have moved from chuckle worthy to downright tasteless. In addition to the growing following, the twitter account has started selling t-shirts and hoodie with “Meninism” in bold letters across the front. An anonymous account made to be sarcastic has turned into a mini revolution among white male teens that feel the need to be included into a social movement.  




Here's a video BBC made right when meninism was gaining speed among the population:

Screw It

Feminism is stupid.

Let me rephrase that to sound more politically correct- The American idea of feminism is stupid.

This probably needs some explaining though. I’ve been struggling with this topic for awhile because I do not necessarily agree with everything I am finding and reading. I do agree with the idea of feminism, in fact I think everyone should agree with the idea or at least the definition of feminism, but it is the way that American women portray it that makes me mad.

I went on tumblr, a social media site that has a large number of active blogging feminists, and just searched the word feminism. At least 8 out of the first 10 posts supported my opinion that modern, American feminism is full of self-righteous, complaining supporters. The first post was a quote by Nikita Gill, a graphic designer and writer, that was angry about being called pretty because a woman is so much more than a nice face. The next two blamed the patriarchy and white men for their problems. One even went so far as to question the need to pay for feminine hygiene products when men can get condoms for free. Now I know that these posts are not what every single feminist believes in or is how all feminists portray themselves, but it goes to show just what is being put out on social media.  

All of these examples of posts are just women complaining about the “unfair” balances in their lives. Maybe I am just cold hearted and have not seen enough of the world to know better yet, but this seems like crap. Every race, gender, and social group has unfair factors. Our culture will never be equal. It is like a balance of life and human nature that people will always be on different levels of power. Take ethnic groups for example. African americans and muslims  are seen as criminals and are treated so harshly by our law. While there has been a recent movement for black equality, muslims still stay far behind in our culture. It is part of the balance and I really hate say that, but it’s true. Someone is always behind, but to be honest (because I am not being already) women do not have it the worst, especially white women who make up a large portion of feminists.

So these women complaining about their close to irrelevant problems, when compared to the rest of the country’s minorities, are the reason I do not want to support modern day, american feminism. Going along with the irrelevent problem idea, a majority of American feminists’ problems are miniscule compared to other parts of the world. While they are sitting behind their new iPhone 6’s, complaining about the privileged white man patriarchy and their need to buy an overpriced six dollar box of tampons, women are getting killed, stoned, and raped in their home countries for driving, going to school, and being seen in public without a man. These women are the ones that really need feminism.

I know, I know, it is the whole “I should not eat this hamburger because some child in Africa is starving” debate. I am not saying people should not complain about their problems because someone else, far away in an entirely different culture, has it worse. I am saying that if feminists really want to make a difference in the lives of women, they should start looking past our beautiful white sand beaches and take a look at war torn, anti-female countries. Those women need feminism. Those women have no rights. Those women need help and we, as Americans, can give it. In fact it should not be any different than our government butting it’s head into every world political matter. We are all women and we all deserve equal rights. We means American, British, Muslim, Indian, Kenyan and every other race and religion in between. Women always say they share an unbreakable bond with other women just because they are women. So it should be a no brainer that American feminists should focus their anger and energy into the governments and people that actually need it.  

So this is what I am going to do for my project. How and why the feminist movement has become so crazy and out of control, who really needs help, and how can we give it. Now I finally have a purpose, I have an idea, and I can go on with this project, hopefully anxiety free.    

P.S. this is a video I found while creeping around on youtube and it overviews what I mostly just ranted about. The man and I are one (when it comes to our feminism ideals).

HeForShe

In a time when I am seriously debating continuing with this topic, Emma Watson has become a shining light. On September 20, 2014, Emma gave a speech in the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to promote the new HeForShe campaign. During her ten minute speech she noted the important stereotypes around the word ‘feminism’ and future goals of the movement.

The first thing she did was define feminism and call out feminists that take on a role of “man-hating”. In doing this, she was able to bring people's attention away from the bad side of the movement and prepare them to look at the good. Feminism is not about putting men down to get ahead and Emma got this notion out of the way as soon as possible. Next she explained the events in her life that made her a feminist. These included being sexualized in the media as a teen and seeing her guy friends be unable to express themselves. The four or five reasons she gave setup the rest of her speech and one of the most important points, in my opinion.

This point is that feminism is not just a movement for women. It includes men too. The stereotypes that affect women have an equal and counter reaction on men. Women are emotional, while men can show no emotion and  women are submissive to their dominant male counterparts. Even though the idea is not voiced often, feminism is about ending these inequalities. Empowering men repressed from these gender roles is a goal Emma was able to successfully bring into the spotlight.

In the end of her speech, she brought in some urgency. This movement is not one that will see results quickly or soon. Right now it is a mostly social battle and in order to make progress, the public has to be on it’s side. Emma invites the public to be on her side, to take on a feminist role, because without that, nothing will ever get done.

Finally, she ends the speech with something that hit home with me. She says, “If not me, who? If not now, when?” This line calls on anyone to make an action and do something. It almost gives me motivation to pursue this topic because if no one talks about this, it will never be heard.

Mid-year Crisis

So here we are, at the halfway point of the year and this project. After this week we have to blog every Friday instead of every other and I have no idea what I’m going to do. When I chose my topic I did not really know much about feminism but from the outside it looked interesting and something I believed in. Now, two months in, I’m having a mid-project crisis.

I do not think I believe in feminism or really support it, but I am thinking about using that standpoint. I might switch to sort of why our society does not need this push for equal rights between men and women. We already mostly have it. I have also given up on starting this project over because I cannot think of a new topic and I have already put a lot of effort into this one. I have to choose what I’m going to do because I need to find people to talk to and something in the community to do, so hopefully I can figure this out soon.  

This is an article that explains the good and bad of modern day feminism: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/homo-consumericus/200908/the-pros-and-cons-feminism