Bryan Polan E-Portfolio

How I Became a Feminist

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment I realized I was a feminist. Rarely in real life do people have those sorts of “A-HA!” moments like that where they suddenly realize something extremely important and significant about their life in an instant because of a singular experience or event. Epiphanies are merely a literary device, they don’t actually occur in reality. Usually, life-altering realizations or personal changes in ideologies come together in a combination of factors, over time, and possibly with bumps in the road along the way. The latter was my experience in my journey to realization regarding my feminist beliefs.

While I didn’t fully realize I was a feminist until my freshman year of college, I can’t start to detail my realization without noting an important event that occurred the year prior, during my senior year of high school. See, I am a huge sports fan—basketball, baseball, and particularly, football—and always have been. Most of my friends, from high school and college, are too. Sports are the #1 topic of discussion that I engage in with my friends. My friends and I adore sports, and idolize athletes.

So when it came out that college football star quarterback and Heisman frontrunner Jameis Winston (who was in the process of leading Florida State University to an undefeated record and national championship-winning season) was accused of sexual assault in late 2013, it was a hard story to escape. Winston wasn’t the first major male athlete in my lifetime to be accused of sexual assault—plenty of others have, from Kobe Bryant to Ben Roethlisberger. The difference between those cases and Winston’s in my path to understanding the difference between men and women’s positions in society was that I was 17 years old when Winston’s allegations came to prominence. I was a senior in high school and finally my brain was capable of grasping the nature of the allegations.

Lots of my peers dismissed the allegations without giving it a thought. A lot of the media dismissed the allegations too. I was curious though—why were so many people so quick to dismiss the possibility that Winston committed a sexual assault? From my peers and the media I heard the same responses about the allegations regarding why he was innocent, stuff along the lines of: there’s no way she couldn’t have wanted to have sex with him…she’s a slut…he’s Jameis fucking Winston…

I had heard of feminism before in my life, and thought I understood it to a degree. Yet, this case was the first time in my life that I realized how prevalent anti-feminism is in our world. People were vicious in their defenses of Winston. Not only did they defend him without blinking, but they denounced the “alleged” victim mercilessly. People couldn’t just merely deny to themselves that Winston was guilty, but they also had to attack the woman who came forward. This time in my life changed my perception of the world at-large in regards to feminism. Originally I thought feminism was something that had to do only with women, but after these events I began to realize it has a lot to do with men.

This got the ball rolling on my evolution as a feminist. Fast forward a year and I am a freshman in my first semester at the University of Michigan. In my first year writing course, I’m in the process of reading Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell. The novel depicts the story of a young woman named Margo growing up in rural Michigan who idolizes Annie Oakley. She is a strong, keen and independent character. Near the beginning of the novel she is raped by an uncle. Margo endures so much, but keeps fighting through all of it.

While reading this novel, my professor, who I respect very much, gives a little bit of a lecture on feminism. He explains to my class that being a feminist doesn’t mean that you find women superior to men. He debunks the stigma that surrounds feminism. See, feminism isn’t some female attempt to control the universe. It’s not some movement that hates men and is trying to inconvenience anyone. It’s a movement for equality. Feminism is activism for women’s rights, but it includes everyone. It advocates for equal treatment and opportunity for everyone.

I always knew that women were somewhat subordinated in America and the world at large, but much like thinking about starving children half the world away it was never something I lost any sleep over. Now I see the world with a completely different viewpoint. Why does my mom clean my house and cook all the meals for my brother, father and I? Why doesn’t my dad clean the house and cook?

Women really are a subordinated group, and the problem is more apparent than most people probably realize. I would like you to consider two institutions—the government and the media—that permeate American society—a society that we consider superior to the rest of the world and the gold standard of equality. It is important to note that if things are this bad in America, think of how bad they are elsewhere in the world.

First, we examine the U.S. government and how evident it is that women do not have a proper, level outlet in the American political process. The lack of female representation in Congress is staggering; there are only 104 seats out held by women in the current 114th Congress.[1] Congress has 535 seats, meaning that females occupy fewer than 20% of the seats in the federal legislative branch. Additionally, besides the low amount of seats held in Congress, there has never been a female President or Vice President. In fact, there had never even been a female Speaker of the House until Nancy Pelosi’s election in 2006.[2] Even crazier is the face that women literally haven’t had the right to vote for a century yet. The 19th Amendment, which guaranteed the right to vote to women, was only passed in 1920.[3]

Women have a small voice in a government system that disproportionately favors older white men. It is unfair to expect women to gain footing on par with men in this country when they lack in numbers in the government. Women make up over half of the American public; thus, it is reasonable to suppose that women should make up over half (or close to it) of the federal government.

In addition to a lack of representation in government being a weapon against women, the media attacks and harms women in a number of aspects. There are stark differences in the way that men and women are portrayed in the media—women are repeatedly sexualized, yet men are not.

Women are scrutinized about their every flaw regarding their outward appearance.[4] There is a lot of money poured into making women feel insecure—fashion blogs, television shows, magazines and tabloids generate huge sums of money by dissecting females’ looks. Body shaming is an unfortunate result of the American hunger for gossip and scandal. The media’s reinforcement of unrealistic beauty goals has a profound, negative effect on women’s psyches.[5]

The advent of Photoshop and retouched photos has reinforced negative beauty ideals in young women and children who now aspire to be as skinny and made up as possible. Females are held to beauty standards that simply do not exist for men—women are expected to get their hair done, wear make up and lipstick, shave their legs and armpits, and dress in a manner that is pleasing to the male eye. Young women are brainwashed to adhere to these ideals; this leads to a never-ending cycle of consumption and devotion to the beauty industry as young women pass these standards onto future generations.

The media as well as the fashion and beauty industries manipulate insecurities in easily persuadable girls to push their products; meanwhile, this business model has created yet another hurdle for women to climb. Women have an aesthetic obstacle in their paths that men do not have to confront.

Simply put, as a white, college-educated male, from a family of means, I don’t know what it’s like to be disadvantaged in life compared to others. I am privileged by birth and didn’t do anything to earn my place in society. I was merely put there by chance. The world is institutionally (or at its core) unfair. It is unfair that a person’s gender can lend their voice more credence in the world.

There are a lot of numbers and statistics that can be thrown out to represent the disadvantages of subordinated groups in this country, but it seems nothing can truly represent the hopelessness and dreadfulness of the situation. Despair is a word that frequently comes to mind, so I am calling on men of all ages to do their part and raise their awareness of the issues. For too long we have stood idly by and let a tremendous injustice occur in front of our eyes. Now is the time to recognize and promote progress. I call on Congress to put forward and pass equal pay legislation. To reverse their defunding of Planned Parenthood. To open their eyes and smell the roses.

It is no longer acceptable to be uninformed about these issues. Not only is it unacceptable to be anti-feminist, it is unacceptable to not be a feminist. Feminism is equality, and to not value equality of opportunity for all people is unjust. There is injustice in our world, right in front of our eyes, and it is time for all people to not ignore it any longer.