In response to Emily Matters’ "Why We Don’t Need Feminism"

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/why-we-dont-need-feminism/

            I recently came across this article on thoughtcatalog.com and found it to be really relevant to some of the things we have been talking about in class. This article, in my opinion, is filled with irrelevant facts and statistics in an attempt to talk down on the effectiveness of feminism. 

            Matters bolds the first sentence of each first body paragraph. The first sentence of the first body paragraph reads, “We don’t need feminism because it doesn’t quell violence or rape.” She subsequently lists off statistics and facts to back up this statement. Matters writes, “many scholars and advocacy groups believe male on male rape in regular life is radically underrepresented and perhaps even more pervasive than male on female rape,” adding that feminism’s vision is limited, “for misogyny is simply a side effect of man’s biological disposition towards aggression and violence.” This statement may be true in its entirety, but nowhere does Matters mention that women are never raped, and that misogyny does not exist. Matters is simply making excuses for why misogyny exists and claims that while we are spending too much time advocating for females’ rights, men are being raped by other men more than females are being raped by men. Rather than downplaying the percentage of female rape victims, which is what Matters is attempting to do, her statements are shedding light on the issue of rape as a whole for both genders. We should not rid of feminism altogether just because men are being raped, too. This does not make sense.

            Matters begins the next paragraph with, “We don’t need feminism because women don’t need to be patronized or coddle about their career choices.” Who ever said women were being coddled? The largest problem regarding gender equality in the workplace is the glass ceiling–– the statistical fact that women earn less than men do for doing the same exact work. Matters claims that the wage gap is “feminist propaganda.” Her reasoning is that women don’t care about money as much as men do and tend to choose lower-paying jobs on their own and not because of societal prejudices. However, women choosing lower-paying jobs has never been an issue for feminists, but rather that when women choose a higher-paying job, they are paid substantially lower than their coworkers.

            The final body paragraph begins with, “We don’t need feminism because we need more, not less, virility.” This statement is a very poor reason for why society “does not need feminism.” If we really don’t need feminism, then it shouldn’t be because we need more testosterone.

            Although it is healthy to have debates about the validity and usefulness of feminism, I believe that feminism is very necessary to achieve gender equality. After all, how many battles have been won in silence?