by Melissa Jerez

Created on: September 19, 2009

Until a woman can make a decision without the fear and or judgement from her fellow peers then no, feminism is not outdated. Despite all the achievements, we women are still being oppressed. If you need a good indicator of how oppressed we are then look around you. Do you find yourself constantly looking into the mirror, thinking:

"I'm not good enough because I have a pouch on my stomach. Therefore I am not attractive enough to find a man"

"I'm not good enough because my hair's not the right color."

"I'm not good enough because my breasts are too small."

And so on and so forth. The most remarkable thing is that it is ourselves, women, who are oppressing each other! This is one of the reasons WHY feminism is in trouble. Ariel Levy of the author "Female Chauvinist Pigs" writes that our culture is being bombarded by "raunchiness". That, instead of women growing up and achieving to be successful, more young women are trying to "out-skank" each other. You are much more worthy of attention/self-worth if you can gather more attention from men. This causes a massive issue. Not only does it devalue women's self worth, but it destroys it. Instead of trying to become successful and educated, we are focusing on our physical attributes. The same thing can be said about the fashion and food industry.

There are tons of ads and books about how to lose weight so you can fit into the perfect size 2. Unfortunately, not every woman is shaped to fit into a size 2 and then that inner battle begins. The inner battle to become something you're NOT, just to fit into that "perfect sculpture" of what it is to be an attractive woman. Now going back on how we ourselves are fitting into the stereotype: if we see a woman who wears revealing/provocative clothing, we call her a slut or a whore or easy. Maybe she likes wearing those clothes, and maybe she does enjoy the attention. Does that mean we should devalue/harass her because of it? It works both ways too: if a woman wears "conservative" clothing (i.e. long skirts, long shirts, doesn't show much skin etc) then she's called a prude. Why are we so quick to pass judgement? It's because we too, have fallen into the trap.

There's nothing wrong with a woman who wishes to do what she wants. If she wants to be something that goes against your beliefs, then walk away. We can try our best to change a person, but unless that person wants to change then it's not going to happen. Instead of focusing our time on the way OTHER women act, why not we focus our time on the way WE act around other women. Until we can come together to fight the girl-on-girl oppression, then feminism will never be outdated. It will just give more fuel for the fire for everyone else to oppress us and stick us to something one-dimensional. Have you ever been afraid to say you were a feminist because you were afraid people would assume you were a radical, stuck-up prude? Well, then perhaps it's time we come together and actually show those people that that's not what feminism is about. That feminism is all about seeking EQUALITY not SUPERIORITY. It's about having the freedoms of choosing to do what we choose without the fear, persecution, and judgement of others just because. Unfortunately we still face these dilemmas today and until we can come together to TACKLE those issues then the need for feminism will always be there.

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