A Feminist?

I am a girl and in the 18 years of my life I have been through incidents that have been disturbing to my sense of being a girl. I have always spoken against misogyny. I have been moved to my core seeing the acts of suppression that girls and women have had to suffer from. I have had innumerable sleepless nights unwillingly picturing the pain of the victims of incidents like the Delhi gang rape and murder, and Nirmala’s rape and murder. Not to forget, the #MeToo movement was one of the many incidents that kept me reminding of the way a woman is perceived in the world we live today, and of the fact of female objectification. Eventually, I ended up questioning myself, “Do I feel the way a feminist does?”

We claim to be living in the time when fourth wave of feminism sweeps across the world. From women’s suffrage to protection of physical rights, feminism has brought unprecedented accomplishments to humanity as a whole. Despite these accomplishments, why was I bothered by the question of whether I were a feminist, or whether I felt the way a feminist does? Was it wrong?

Whenever I see around, I find people coming up with all contradicting, not to mention, ironic definitions of ‘feminism’. Being specific to where I live, allocating a seat or two for women; fulfilling the part of a colleague just because one thinks she won’t be able to handle all the shits (because she is a woman); asking the opinion of a female counterpart on a certain topic of discussion without bothering to ever undertake the idea she proposes is what feminism looks like. The word had become burden to my senses due to these meaningless labels that our society has put above it. These are the reasons why I ever questioned myself in the first place.

Now, I have decided. I am a ‘difference feminist’-one who believes that men and women have same level of ability to do any specific task, yet their physical and emotional capabilities are no where close to being in the same level. A man, is by birth, physically stronger than a woman. A woman, on the other hand, is emotionally stronger than a man. Both of the sexes have their own way of expression and I respect them. A woman is more kind and empathetic, and it is no where close to being ‘weak’. And it is never necessary for a woman to be rude, or arrogant, or seemingly ‘strong’, to be taken as sensible. This is what I believe, and this is why I stand as a difference feminist.