2014 was one of the biggest years for cultural figures fighting for feminism. Some of these figures were John Legend, Lena Dunham, Ellen Page, Beyonce, Patrick Stewart, Ashton Kutcher and Dustin Hoffman. These people, along with many others, have been using their platform to help with furthering the idea of feminism.
Emma Watson has been one of the most important people in this sudden rise of feminism. The British actress was appointed UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in July of 2014. On September 20 of the same year, she gave her game-changing speech at the United Nations. In this speech she started the #Heforshe campaign and corrected one of the biggest misconceptions about feminism. "I have realized that fighting for women's rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop" says Watson during her speech.
Feminism is the advocacy for women's rights on the grounds of the political, social, and economic equality to men. Many people believe that feminism is about proving that women are above men and the current roles should be switched. This is what the #Heforshe campaign is trying to fix. The purpose of this campaign is to let people know what feminism really means. The equality of both genders. Watson asked men and boys to help spread the word and show their support by saying "How can we effect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?"
Many men agreed and signed the pledge, in fact to this day there 217,561 signatures by men on that website. 60,906 of these men live in the United States. Twitter also blew up with pictures of men holding #Heforshe signs and tweets from supporters of the new campaign. Among these men were celebrities such as Harry Styles, Logan Lerman, Tom Hiddleston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Chris Colfer, Matthew Lewis, and Jared Leto.
One of these men, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, not only participated in the #Heforshe movement, but also talked about feminism on his own. While on The Ellen Show, he talks about him being a feminist and what that means to him. After this, he noticed all the mixed feelings people had been showing online about him classifying himself as a feminist. He made a video of himself at his home, talking about these things and misconceptions people have with feminism. "It's complicated and I grant that it's complicated and I think that it's a really great thing for us all to be talking about" he says in this video.
The fact is that so many people, both celebrities and normal people, have started talking about feminism in the last year. People are learning about the problems that both men and women face and that feminism is about helping. Feminism is seen as something for solving women's issues, but in reality it deals with men's issues too. Emma Watson shows an example of this in her explanation of being a feminist. "When at 14 my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn't want to appear 'muscly'. When at 18 my male friends were unable to express their feelings. I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me." Men and women's issues have the same idea.
Jackson Katz is the creator and co-founder of the Mentors in Violence Prevention(MVP) and gave a speech for TEDxFiDiWomen. In his speech he talks about the importance for both men and women to realize that equality is important and we all have to come together for it. "And so one of the things that I say to men, and my colleagues and I always say this, is we need more men who have the courage and the strength to start standing up and saying some of this stuff, and standing with women and not against them and pretending that somehow this is a battle between the sexes and other kinds of nonsense. We live in the world together." Says Katz
It is amazing that women fought so hard to get the right to vote in 1920 and the fight for equality is still going today. We wish that we wouldn't have to keep fighting for equality but it is great how far we have come. We never would have thought it would get this far, even though that's sad to say.
Emma Watson has been one of the most important people in this sudden rise of feminism. The British actress was appointed UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in July of 2014. On September 20 of the same year, she gave her game-changing speech at the United Nations. In this speech she started the #Heforshe campaign and corrected one of the biggest misconceptions about feminism. "I have realized that fighting for women's rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop" says Watson during her speech.
Feminism is the advocacy for women's rights on the grounds of the political, social, and economic equality to men. Many people believe that feminism is about proving that women are above men and the current roles should be switched. This is what the #Heforshe campaign is trying to fix. The purpose of this campaign is to let people know what feminism really means. The equality of both genders. Watson asked men and boys to help spread the word and show their support by saying "How can we effect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?"
Many men agreed and signed the pledge, in fact to this day there 217,561 signatures by men on that website. 60,906 of these men live in the United States. Twitter also blew up with pictures of men holding #Heforshe signs and tweets from supporters of the new campaign. Among these men were celebrities such as Harry Styles, Logan Lerman, Tom Hiddleston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Chris Colfer, Matthew Lewis, and Jared Leto.
One of these men, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, not only participated in the #Heforshe movement, but also talked about feminism on his own. While on The Ellen Show, he talks about him being a feminist and what that means to him. After this, he noticed all the mixed feelings people had been showing online about him classifying himself as a feminist. He made a video of himself at his home, talking about these things and misconceptions people have with feminism. "It's complicated and I grant that it's complicated and I think that it's a really great thing for us all to be talking about" he says in this video.
The fact is that so many people, both celebrities and normal people, have started talking about feminism in the last year. People are learning about the problems that both men and women face and that feminism is about helping. Feminism is seen as something for solving women's issues, but in reality it deals with men's issues too. Emma Watson shows an example of this in her explanation of being a feminist. "When at 14 my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn't want to appear 'muscly'. When at 18 my male friends were unable to express their feelings. I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me." Men and women's issues have the same idea.
Jackson Katz is the creator and co-founder of the Mentors in Violence Prevention(MVP) and gave a speech for TEDxFiDiWomen. In his speech he talks about the importance for both men and women to realize that equality is important and we all have to come together for it. "And so one of the things that I say to men, and my colleagues and I always say this, is we need more men who have the courage and the strength to start standing up and saying some of this stuff, and standing with women and not against them and pretending that somehow this is a battle between the sexes and other kinds of nonsense. We live in the world together." Says Katz
It is amazing that women fought so hard to get the right to vote in 1920 and the fight for equality is still going today. We wish that we wouldn't have to keep fighting for equality but it is great how far we have come. We never would have thought it would get this far, even though that's sad to say.
