Women used to be embarrassed to say that they were feminists. However, a feminist is simply someone that believes women should be equal to men, it is the equality of genders. Mistakenly, over time being a feminist has evolved to mean the same thing as being a misandrist, a person who despises men. This is not the case, and really detracts from the overall movement of gender equality. It is absurd to see that in this day and age many people, namely men, are still not for the equality of genders. This is in part because of the unfortunate misunderstandings that have been associated with the feminist movement, but also in some of the key ways women are perceived differently than men.

Floyd Dell perfectly explains how feminism can also benefit men in “Feminism for Men,” and the best part is he wrote it in 1914. He says “Feminism is going to make it possible for the first time for men to be free” (Dell). What this means is that the stereotypical male is not free, a man with a wife and kids, because he has a family that is dependent on him, monetarily speaking. He can’t quit his job he must remain the oh so powerful “man of the house.” Floyd explains that if man wanted to quit their jobs, or something to that effect, he can’t because he is bogged down by women, entrapped because of social standards. He describes that “…this will be true so long as women as a sex are dependent on men for support.” Those words really rang true, proving that if a change isn’t made it will just continue to remain like this. He said the things that women were doing at the time like trying to make sure girls were going into school and get educated so they could get a job needed to be supported. Additionally, as we are still today, they were striving for equal pay, stating that this movement is worth it for both genders. 

He goes on to say that where they stand now is a product of capitalism, that it backs men into a corner of being the working fathers, forcing mothers and children to be reliant on them for support. In my opinion, though, after reading those ideas, in actuality capitalism is blind to gender and instead it is society that has placed this sexist tag on capitalism, which means that society has the power to change it. The unfortunate part, as Dell explains, is that while men could be free, they value the sense of power more than societal freedom. It is sad to say but they would rather have someone dependent on them more than they want a comrade. “They want the feeling that comes to them as providers for women more than they want the feeling that comes to them as free men…As long as they can be lords in a thirty-dollar flat, they are willing to be slaves in the great world outside…” (Dell). This speaks volumes to the fact that men seem to be feel rather threatened very easily. They would rather have, essentially, a “lose lose” situation than explore the idea of what just may possibly be a “win win.” Many people can recognize that this would greatly benefit society, but unfortunately, those men that have a strong stubborn hold on the power in society have declared that it won’t.  

I believe that as time has gone on and these ideas have been strengthened and have reached more and more women it has called for a louder change than ever before. Gone are the days of trying to meet men’s needs, making sure their egos are being bolstered to their full potential because they are the men that “bring home the bacon”. It’s these unprogressive, annoying societal images that keep the feminist movement down. It is now one hundred years later sense Floyd introduced these ideas and either men have to get with the program or be defeated by this apparent battle. Despite the fact equality of genders doesn’t mean defeat for either party involved, there is clearly still pushback from the male side. So, now women want power too, and as this article states it (gasp) actually can benefit both genders. 

Emma Watson delivered an empowering speech to the UN launching the HeForShe campaign in a way that echoes Dell’s argument from a century before. One of her main points was that she wants to include boys and men to become advocates for the feminist movement. Emma gave relatable details about how when she was younger she was perceived as bossy for wanting to direct the little plays she put on as a child, and the boys wanting to be directors too were not seen in the same light. This exemplifies the difference of what it means to be a determined woman versus a man, and is exactly what Emma is eluding to. That until this view is changed, not much is going to be done. 

She takes this idea further though, by explaining while little things like this are unfortunate, she is actually very privileged. Her parents loved her, and her teachers gave her the time of day even though she is a girl. This may sound very normal to us, but she goes on to explain that many places in the world are nothing like this. In many countries a baby will be born and parents will be deeply disappointed when they hear the words “It’s a girl.” A big part of Emma’s speech is that many third world countries lack progression in terms of women’s rights and if nothing is done to help girls in these countries it will never improve. Girls will never make it to a secondary education, they will continue to be forced to be reliant on men, and there will never be a resolution to such drastic problems. 

Her point is that the word feminism needs to stopped being looked at so harshly, and that people need to get on board with the idea of gender equality. She discussed how the word feminism has become synonymous with manhating and that this draws so much away from the actual movement.  I liked how she went on to explain that this would benefit men, as well. That not only could things change for women, but they could for men, too. She explains how she has witnessed many of her male friends not being able to be vulnerable and comfortable expressing their emotions. She isn’t afraid to say that men have their own gender stereotypes, too. She powerfully offers men the invitation to be feminists. That gender equality is their issue too. They make up half of this gender equation, they are on the other side of that equals sign. She boldly states “If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have control, women won’t have to be controlled.” This is an amazing thought, that more people need to understand isn’t the worst thing that can happen. These people are those ignorant enough to deny that equality is the better option. These people have been seen over and over again in history, and are doing nothing besides providing a big wall that is impossible to get around. Those that are trying to further this positive movement are stuck, and will continue to be stuck until these men see that equality of genders is a good thing. It is embarrassing to our society and looks highly unprogressive and unintelligent, that such beliefs still exist. This is why Emma Watson’s stance on inviting men to join the movement is so important. While it is annoying to have many men be so against feminism, by inviting them to really open their eyes and see what this movement is about will help to reach the goal of equality. She perfectly articulated what the issues of gender inequality are, between wage gaps, to even the fact that girls are denied education in many societies. She explains what needs to be done, and wants to both men and women to stop the inequality and start actively advocating for equality together. 

One difference that Emma spoke of was that she has been looked at as being a bossy girl, and that boys, acting in the same manor, were not perceived in this way at all. This seems to be a common thread with how women in leadership roles are perceived. In fact, this was proven to be true in a study the Harvard Business School conducted. They gave their students in the study a reading about a boss, but with half of the students the boss’s name was Howard and with the other half the name was changed to Heidi. Despite the fact that it was the same exact reading, besides the names, the students that received the Howard version deemed Howard to be a great hire, and a good person to work with. Unfortunately, the students that read the version with Heidi reported back that she was not a good person to work with, “Students felt Heidi was significantly less likeable and worthy of being hired than Howard and perceived her as more “selfish” than Howard” (Katsarou). 

Maria Katsarou discusses this case in "Women and the Leadership Labyrinth Howard vs Heidi” with input from other women in leadership roles to see what their opinions were on what it means to be a woman as a leader. The article discussed how this perception of women is a hard hurdle that women have to jump over to become successful, things don’t come easy to anyone that is seen as bossy, selfish and unlikeable. Katsarous states “The essence is that research has demonstrated a negative correlation for women between power and success.” The fact that this is the reality shows how society has to get comfortable changing their views on women, including women themselves. This case study was given to both genders, which means that women look at themselves this way, too. The idea that even women look at their gender in this light shows how much work still needs to be done. 

Along with this, Katsarou gave a few statistics that are rather depressing. In 2011 only 15% of the American Fortune 500 “C-suite” jobs were held by women, only 9 of 190 were heads of state, and 13% of the world’s parliaments and 24% of the full professorships in American colleges and Universities were women, and things haven’t changed over the last decade. The explanation given for these numbers is while there seems to be a greater sacrifice for women that are taking positions that are higher up, the trade-off between family and career, Despina Tsagari suggests that there is a larger reason for the disparity and it is a lack of female role models in high positions. Women in leadership roles are easily viewed as bossy or arrogant as compared to their male counterparts, which makes it hard for more women to be chosen to fit these roles. What Tsagari suggests is that women are different and provide many great things that men don’t offer. Women are said to lead with more interactive cooperative styles, strengthening a team approach, as well as, women have more emotional intelligence, self-awareness, empathy and social skills. This gives them an edge over men. By incorporating these basic skills, with the positive skills men have its clear it would make for a more sufficient, workplace in this case, and clearly, society as a whole. 

The issue than seems to be how to get women in these parts and start becoming role models for other women to get inspired by. That’s where a change in societal views on feminism and looking at women as equal to men comes in. If strong women start being looked at in a different light and these misinterpretations stopped being believed, that is when a real change can happen. Kathryn Stanley, PhD Co-Founder of Navigated Breakthrough Analytics Group and Professor of Organizational Leadership Studies, discussed the challenge that women face in leadership positions as well as their successes. She said “Studies show that when boards of directors have women on them, the company is significantly less likely to go bankrupt,” she discussed how this was a testament to the fact that both men and women can work towards a successful goal, and do it better than just one or the other. It’s about embracing each other’s differences to become more effective. It is astonishing how this is still not recognized in my opinion, and it all goes back to how strong women are still, sadly, not looked at as the same as strong men. 

In a sharp contrast to this ideology of men and women working together, Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Bitch Planet depicts exactly what the horrify nature of a completely patriarchal society looks like through the eyes of a woman, Penelope, that fits none of the societal roles that a patriarchal society wants her to fill. The graphic novel starts out with a powerful picture of Penelope, a strong and large African American woman, half of her hair is shaven and she is dressed in the orange jumpsuit of a prisoner with a grueling look on her face. She is being held in this place by The Fathers, the most stereotypical group of powerful white men that are depicted on a series of screens and share with Penelope her case and the offenses she is being held for including “…repeated citations of aesthetic offense, capillary disfigurement, and wanton obesity” and they follow up with a “Good god women, what have you done to yourself?” (177). This clearly depicts how The Fathers do not approve of the way Penny has chosen to look, she is an unwanted blemish on the society they are so perfectly trying to curate and something must be done about “it”. 

A fantastic aspect of this novel is that it jumps from this horrifying scene with The Fathers, to memories that Penny has that provide a sense of why she is the way she is. One of them is from when Penny was younger and in a school type setting, she has gotten into trouble and is in the office of a tall thin blond women who seems to be some sort of principal type figure. As they discuss Penny’s offense she, too, tries to fix Penny “What are we going to do with this hair of yours?” (187) as she tries to brush and change Penny’s mass of curls on her head. To me, this is a particularly disgusting part of the story because it is a female in Penny’s life that is forcing her to fit societies view of how a girl should look. This is not how it should go, this woman could be a fantastic role model to Penny encouraging her to love her curly hair and to stand up for herself, rather than making her feel like a piece that doesn’t quite fit into the puzzle. 

Another disturbing memory Penny reflects back to is a morning where she is working at a bakery. There is an irritating man that is rudely telling Penny how unacceptable is that she hasn’t turned on “The Feed,” what seems to be a basic morning talk show, “Second morning in a row, Lucky these muffins are so good or I’d talk to your old man about this.” While Penny shares she is actually state sponsored and not run by her “old man,” it shows that society expects her to not own and run her own business but instead she must have some sort of male superior involved. This is then coupled with a women complaining about this man to Penny, when the man accuses this woman of rolling her eyes at him, rather than standing up for herself she instead backs down and says no. Again, showing that even though this male was in the wrong and annoying he still held the power in this little interaction and the women succumbed to it. Of course, too, the top stories that “The Feed” was playing were about A parasitic worm diet and terrorism, showing how important skinny perfect females are in this society, right up there with terrorism (192-193).

As it transitions back to Penny enduring The Father’s accusations, they further show how stupid and unprogressive they are. As one of the gross bald men attempts and fails to simply say the word algorithm, to them accusing Penny of not loving herself and that she needs to think about other people. “How long since you imagined what your life could be like if you were more compliant Penelope? How long since you prioritized how others see you?” (190). This all just shows how unintelligent they all are, and that they should not be the ones running society, if their main concern is the way females look, if that is what they are assigning as societies biggest flaw. Luckily, at the end of the story Penny shows them that she is content with herself, that she isn’t the problem, it’s society assigning problems for her (199).

All of this shows that these “Fathers” and the messed up society of Bitch Planet needs is some feminism. For one their main problems all revolve around how they treat and look at women, by providing such a day to day conflict it’s an obvious reason as to why no one is content. It is disgusting how much emphasis is put on the way women are meant to look. Penny had multiple “offenses” that were solely based on the way she looks which is absolutely absurd, especially because the men behind the screens were not being judged and held accountable for the way they looked either. In this case if gender equality was applied here they wouldn’t look at Penny as such a repulsive individual because she wasn’t a perfect skinny white blond girl with long hair. This is a testament to the ideology that feminists are all “butch” looking individuals that believe all men should be taken down and they in turn should rise to power. If The Fathers were asked what a feminist this is probably what they would describe and it is clear they are subjecting those that fit this picture to their imprisonment because they are threatened by the idea of women influencing their patriarchal society they have so carefully created. However, if they knew that feminism is about gender equality, that women can dress and look like whatever they want and so can men, that neither are a threat to the other instead they can work together to build each other up. Gone would be the ridiculous gender roles and instead it would provide a much more cohesive society. 

With this mind, a second problem that could be fixed by feminism is their patriarchal society. The fact that this society is run wholly by men is visibly not working. If a women’s perspective were to be incorporated with the planning and execution of aspects of their society it would create a much more successful one. As Tsagari said early women provide different positive perspectives that men can’t, and it’s important to realized that men do the same. If The Fathers were told that a women was going to join them they would probably assume, like many other uninformed people about feminism, that women were trying to completely take over what they were doing. However, this isn’t the case, it’s about incorporating both genders. Unlike what The Fathers have been doing, creating a society that is filled with misogynistic men and women that feel like they are never enough.  

This brings me to the most important part about Bitch Planet, while it seems like some sort of crazy exaggerated society it, in actuality, resembles ours own more than I’d like to admit. There are many women that feel a lot like Penny in the way society pressures them that they are not enough, there are many working in jobs that have to deal with male bosses, as stated earlier women are not in a lot of high level positions. Again, as stated by Katsarou only 13% of the world’s parliaments are made up of women, which really displays the symbol of “The Fathers,” a group of men running society. There are issues in our society that mimic those displayed in Bitch Planet, as I shared how feminism could help fix their society it looks like the same ideas can be applied to ours. Gender equality is such an important aspect that has been neglected for so long, and it needs to stop. Kelly Sue DeConnick did a great job showing this in Bitch Planet, while the usual nature of graphic pieces are supposed to represent an exaggeration, in this case it isn’t too far off from what our society is indeed experiencing. By recognizing that so much of this parallels the society we live in it can provide the first step in fixing our society as well. 
