What Feminism Looks Like to Me

The words feminism and feminist are ambiguous these days, and nobody can be quite sure of what is meant by the use of these words. Christian is another word that is ambiguous, and I think that a lot of that comes down to the fact that we are all unique individuals. Many different kinds of women (and men) claim the term feminist as part of their identity these days, and we all have a slightly different understanding of it because it looks different in each person’s life. I’ve come to believe that life in general is a lot more ambiguous than I thought it was, certainly a lot more ambiguous than I was taught it was. I was taught to see the world in black and white, but I’ve learned that there are many other colors that the Great Artist used when he created us, when he created the world (however it was that he chose to do that).

So I thought I would write about some of the things that feminism means for me personally. The word I think that encompasses feminism the most for me is respect. It’s realizing that women are equal to men in value and worth, not better than men and not less than men, but equal. One of the practical ways to show that is, while I’m not in favor of huge amounts of censorship, I do censor some of the things I allow my children to consume, and one thing that I have banned is secular rap music, because it disrespects and degrades women and I don’t want my boys to be thinking that way about women and I don’t want my daughter to think that way about herself. Someone told me that rap was no big deal anymore because people are used to it. It’s sad that women are used to women being disrespected in such blatant ways that even girls listen happily to rap music. I’m smart enough to know that my children will listen to music they aren’t allowed to listen to when they are at a friend’s house, but at least I won’t be disrespected in my own home, and neither will my daughter.

A huge part of this is teaching my children to respect themselves and each other, and for respect to have a high importance in our home. In my opinion, if people respected each other and recognized the value that each of us has to God, feminism wouldn’t be needed. But because people choose not to respect each other, and some people choose to believe that women are not equal with men, it ruins it for our entire society who is then conditioned in a patriarchal manner. What is sad is that we think that patriarchy is the norm because that is how we have been taught. The key to all of this is respect. Respect for ourselves, and respect for each other.