Equality.

In the last couple of days, the issue of gender equality has blown up and gotten people talking, discussing and debating about it - and that's flipping brilliant.

Emma Watson made a speech to the U.N last weekend, as their Women Goodwill Ambassador, and received a standing ovation. She spoke about when she realised she was a feminist, and the issue of gender equality. 

Her speech went viral and was applauded for worldwide, and it really raised the discussion of gender equality, and brought more awareness to the issue. She launched the HeForShe campaign, (as if you needed another reason to love her even more!), and I think it's going to influence a wide audience. With her association of being Hermione in the Harry Potter series and franchise, she has a whole audience of young fans, and I feel that this is going to reach out to those especially, who may not have aware that this even was an issue, or have any opinions on it formed yet.

HeForShe urges men speak up and fight for gender equality, and support the women in their life. The public and celebrities alike have backed the campaign with full force.

@Harry_Styles: "I'm supporting @UN_Women and @Em_Watson in #HeForShe As should you..."

@DouglasBooth: "I am a passionate supporter of gender equality."

@twhiddleston: "@EmWatson you are impeccable & extraordinary. I stand with you. I believe in gender equality."

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is also supporting the campaign, has a company named hitRECord, which is an 'open collaborative production company'. It invites anyone and everyone to get involved with projects of a specific topic. And he's asking people what feminism means to them. 

I didn't really know what feminism was until about 2 years ago. I knew it was a thing and people were feminists, but I didn’t know what it all meant.

Until I was researching to write up my dissertation. I read up about it, learnt about the 2nd wave of feminism. Until then, I didn’t realise that the reason I can vote, the reason I can apply for the same job as men, the reason i have the freedom to do so many things, is because of feminism.

Now, I don't want to turn this into a feminism blog (not that that would be bad thing) but it really got me thinking what being a feminist actually means to me. I've posted before about my experiences of it, and I know I am one, but, but that question really made me sit down and really had a think.

What I came to was that, for me, feminism means that your rights, actions, opinions, choice and beliefs not being judged on because of your gender. It's about equality.

Equality. It’s not about women hating one another. It's not 'men-hating'. Feminists don’t hate men, many feminists ARE men. It’s not about one sex being better than the other, but them co-existing as equals. 

It's not even about non-feminists and feminists being against one another. More recently, I read numerous articles about Annie Lennox criticising Beyoncé and her form of feminism as 'feminism-lite'. Now, I know that Annie Lennox has been a long-time activist, and I'm not arguing with her, because it's her opinion, but that almost seems like a battle of 'who's the better feminist' in my eyes. But it seems to me that, different people attract and reach differnt audiences, and surely, the more people that promote a positive message about important matters like gender equality, that can only be a good thing. That message is being spread, because people who listen to 'Single Ladies' may not also be a fan of 'Harry Potter'. Surely, if at the core of it, your beliefs are the same, that should be the only thing that matters?

As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie put more concisely and elegantly, a feminist is a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality between the sexes.

There should be no expectations of a person to act, look, or behave in a certain way, because of their gender. Just like I said before feminist and feminine aren’t exclusive to themselves - don’t want to shave your legs? That's great! Want to wear a sparkly pink bow? Awesome! Want to be a stay-at-home housewife? Fantastic! Want to be a kick-ass mechanic? That's amazing! Want to have as many kids as the Von Trapp family? Perfect! Don’t want any kids? Perfect too!

Choices like these should be down to each individual person, and they should not be judged by them. Some people think equality's been achieved but with comments such as ones like this:

We've still got work to do.

There lots of different views and types of feminism, so I urge you and go find out more about feminism and figure out what it means to you - I've just bought some books myself and can't wait to get stuck in!

What is your stance and opinion on it?

And if you want, do contribute to the hitRECord video (which I've done so myself!), and join in on an interesting discussion that concerns us all.

Stay sassy & stay happy!

Until next time,

A.x