Is feminism a battle against men??

Hey guys my name is Ritika and I am a feminist........On reading the word feminist many of you won't read my post further but why??? Why do some people go ballistic on hearing the word feminism. So today I'll discuss about feminism and misapprehensions regarding it.

Commencing with the definition of the feminism, do we know the actual meaning of  it?........Feminism is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes . But before advocating feminism I would like to elucidate some common reasons, based on which people do not support it.

• Feminism is misinterpreted as a hatred against men.
• There are million of people who still find women inferior to men and don't find it justified to provide women with equal opportunities and rights.
• There are many who believe in equal rights but find feminism as a bluff concept .
• Thousands of people presume that we have accomplished gender equality.

Based on above arguments I will like to clear some of the misconceptions about feminism. Firstly, feminism is not a war against men. Just because the word feminine is added to it, doesn't implies that it is a women's movement to place women above men.Rather it is a movement for human beings to establish equality for both men and women.However, we cannot deny the fact that women have been the prime victim of patriarchy and toxic masculinity. Hence feminism is an endeavour to fight against this dominance, injustice and to set an identical platform for both men and women.

Moving further I will also like to interpret the difference between sameness and equality. The issue is about equality not sameness. 'women and men do not have same physicality',cannot justify that women should be deprived of equal rights. What if I say that a thin boy should get less opportunities and rights than a stronger boy. Does this make a sense to you? If no, then why does this make sense when it comes to give equal opportunities to women.

Now the question arises that why is feminism crucial for our society? We need feminism to free women of male dominance .Women should not be considered a responsibility of a male throughout her life moving from her father to husband. Rather than calling women somebody's daughter, sister or wife, she should be known for her own identity. It is also important to break menstruation taboos. People have maligned the purity of a natural process like menstruation.It was found in a research that 23 million women dropout of school every year when they start menstruating in India. Women are treated as untouchables in many parts of India during their menstruation. This humiliation needs to be ceased immediately.

I am a girl and I have this woe deep inside my heart that I am not treated equal to boys at times.I want a place to live where I can wear anything of my choice without the fear of being judged, where time is not a barrier to my travel and a place free of prejudices where precious emotions like crying is not considered as a girly thing or being emotional is considered weak.

Women like Savitribai Phule, Fatima Sheikh, Tarabari Shinde and Ramabai Ranade have campaigned and fought for women's rights including right to education, right against Physical and mental violence and right to choose in past.Now it is our responsibility to make India free from gender bias and inequity.Rather than ranting about feminism we should demonstrate it in practice and make attempts to provide equality and liberty to all the genders.

-Ritika