The growth of feminism in the world has clearly brought about significant changes in the law, as well as in human relationships too, as expected. For what it’s worth, realistically speaking, I agree that feminism may have a negative impact, even though, in my estimation, feminism is generally completely misperceived, and it shouldn’t be seen this way.   

To start with, what is feminism by definition? Feminism is a social and political movement that advocates for the rights of women on the grounds of equality between the sexes. On the contrary, it is disappointingly generally misunderstood. It strives for equality of the sexes, not the superiority of women as many suppose. Feminism takes the gender roles that have been around for many years, tries to deconstruct them, and has shown progress till now. As I see it, my first argument on why there is a negative impact would be the misconception, as mentioned above. People, sometimes, without thinking and having enough information about a certain topic make conclusions and stand by them excluding the option that they may be wrong. They may judge and not listen. From my experience, my guy friends have remarked that their fear of approaching a girl is one of the reasons they don’t like feminism. With the development of this movement, women have become more independent, and supposedly, that is what scares guys. They might fear that they are not seen as of big importance in women’s lives, which could result in triggering their underlying insecurities.

Another argument I would like to speak of is workplaces. With the significant improvement of women in higher positions, men’s dissatisfaction is also increasing. Fighting for women’s rights has become synonymous with man-hating. So naturally, wanting to “steal” their job is also an assumption. We should perceive gender on a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals. But with feminism becoming a poorly interpreted word and women continuing to fight for their social improvement, men’s anger is growing. The sad nature of women in higher positions is also the downward look on them, as well as the lower pay. The expectations of women are lower because of the belief that they are not able to keep up with both work and home activities, speculating it’s their “job” to do work at home. The social judgment is huge, could be from both men and women who have the belief and hold on to it leaving no space for an open mind. Regardless of the fact that there is progress in the law, excluding some countries though, humankind is keen on keeping their opinions and living in a closed box. Another issue is pregnancy, with many women fired for that exact reason. To mention that women are the ones always expected to be “the parent”, not certainly said, but thought by many nonetheless, is very sorrowful and bitter. Mentioning all of this may seem untruthful and people may say that we’ve gone past this stage, but sadly, I stand by these statements and I believe that with little more attention these things are noticeable.

I would like to add a third argument, which is men’s ignorance. Considering the achievements of feminists so far, by turning a blind eye to many countries that still struggle with giving women secondary education, men believe that feminism now is just a movement that expresses hate towards men. For instance, a guy I was dating, in our discussion about the movement, said with the identical words, “Well, you’ve got what you wanted, even more, so why should feminism still be a thing?” The disappointing reality is that many women in the world still struggle a lot with job opportunities, social status, and expressing themselves to the world.  

On a final note, as I mentioned above, I bitterly agree that feminism has a negative impact on the community, but I also firmly maintain that, to my knowledge, the worst influence is not feminism itself, but rather the wrong interpretation.

Aleksandra Andonova

Sources:
Feminism: Understanding the Movement and Its Impact
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/what-is-feminism-and-why-is-it-important
Feminisms in Social Sciences | IntechOpen