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I suppose that it would be unfair to automatically assume that feminism is something that is geared toward simply taking away power from men and giving it to women, because that simply isn't the case. The ideology of feminism, as has been described to me more and more recently by women who do consider themselves feminist, is that the goal of feminism is to liberate the way that women AND men think, in the hopes of opening the minds of both sexes to the ideas of what each sex is truly capable of.

With that said, it's not the ideology of feminism that creates division in social situations, it is the way that it is employed and set forth. I'm currently in a women's literature class at the university I attend. The ratio of women is 5 to 1, more or less. With that, you would assume that the women in the class would take hold and try to dominate the conversation in such a way that we, the men, the minority, would be able to see the true side of feminism, as they have agreed that the definition I set forth is the most accurate one.

The problem is that when trying to establish their views, their abilities, their right to have some sort of high standing in any field in society, they are quick to shoot down the ideologies of men. They seem to agree that a lot of times men are patronizing women. They seem to agree that men will often ignore a brilliant woman just because she is a woman and that we are unable to identify with that. That stumbled over into things of a more personal nature, like menopause and menstruation. Men, in their opinion, are unable to fully understand these kinds of things. While I believe that this is true, to automatically assume something you know can't be understood by another group creates this intellectual divide between you and them, fighting against the ideology of liberating both sexes. How can you do that when you feel there are still things that you can't try to get the opposite sex to understand?

I recently put to them the idea that women should just do what they say or want when they know it's right, instead of doing what they normally do, and that is going to back to ask for the permission from men. The response was that women, of different times and in different situations, are still conditioned to defer to the authority of men and that asking them to step out on their own is me asking them to be too radical. In my mind, that way of thinking is self-defeating to the purpose of feminism and unifying men. We, as both men and women, are all conditioned, by culture and society, to act certain ways but that doesn't excuse inactivity when we know that we are in the right. How can you liberate the sexes when you are afraid to make a point?

There are also many schools of feminism. There are some that believe that women should be able to express themselves freely sexually. There are some that frown on a "loose" interpretation of the sexual lifestyle. There are some that believe that men can come to grips with the reality and power of women. There are some who feel that men can't ever truly identify with women. The list goes on and on, and that is probably the biggest problem with feminism. Not only does it inevitably create division between men and women, but amongst women themselves. Without a unified feminist voice, women will never even get a glimpse of a realized dream of liberating the sexes. You can't create unity amongst an entire society if there is infighting withing your own school of thought.

Learn more about this author, Robert Solis.
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