Why We Still Need Feminism In 2020
An Open Article To Men Who Still Question “What About the Women Who Lie?”
Feminism
(political ideology) noun
The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of equality for sexes.
May involve political and social movements that involve ideologies that aim to redefine and establish social equality in political, economic and personal areas.
Last year in 2019 I was in a legal studies class where the teacher was discussing hate crimes and sex crimes towards women. In my class most of the students were male, whilst there still were females, it always felt as though male students used to over dominate some class discussions. Especially when it came to the topic of rape and sexual assault. When we talked about the issues of consent and how courts may discriminate and victim-shame rape victims, one of the guys openly said: “what about the women who lie?”
False accusations occur and are real- I’ll say that right now. I know women can and may lie to gain some financial benefit or fame out of it- but really- how many rape victim’s do we know and talk about? Have these women even gained fame for it?
In a 2010 study by the US Government, only 2–10% of reported sexual crimes were false and fabricated and the statistics remain the same later in 2019. However, most of these false accusation cases received five times more media attention than the real accusations. This created a lot of false representation of rape victims. Especially to those women who never reported the crimes in fear of retribution.
According to a Special Report by the US Department of Justice had revealed a large number of figures where men who are convicted (on the basis of a false accusation) is low and is a rare occurrence in comparison to women who haven’t reported sex crimes against them.
Obviously, because these are American statistics, they can’t account for Australia’s false accusations and convictions. They can’t even account for the number of court cases that have resulted after Me Too and how many rapists still walk free. However, these boys had argued this that they had the audacity to say: “when they {women} can lie and still have this pedestal above us all because of this movement that is clearly sexist”.
Thankfully our teacher corrected these boys, and hopefully, they walked out of school that day with some politically correct information about ‘feminism’ and how Me Too isn’t just about women blaming men. It’s about people coming forward (the majority being women) and speaking up against rape and sexual assault.
And now there is more to be improved on.
In November 2015 a 17-year-old woman in Ireland was raped in an alleyway by a 27-year-old man. In the criminal trial, his lawyer used this woman’s lacy underwear as a scapegoat ‘indicating’ that this was “a sign of consent”. “She was wearing a thong with a lace front,” this lawyer said to the media just as the rapist was acquitted and allowed to walk free whilst this woman (who still remains unnamed) had become a symbol of victim-blaming. Not only this but it caused a large conversation in the media and in Irish courts on the surface of victim-blaming and how such consent needs to prove in future cases.
Bollywood only just recently began to gain prominence in regards to how the industry works and ways that the industry won’t be as discriminatory and ‘sex run’. A Vogue Issue (March 2020) even exposed and shared stories about producers, writers and casting directors abusing models and actresses during auditions and onset of productions. Tanushree Dutta is one of the many women coming forward against Nana Petkar along with actresses such as Deepika Padukune and Priyanka Chopra showing their support. Not only that but India, as a nation, has even become more encouraging of women, who have been sexually assaulted and violated, to speak up to authorities without religious and public shame. Allowing the ‘conservative and traditional’ country to become more modernised and open to more ethical and legal ways of reducing the rape statistics and allowing women to be treated as equal regardless if they are famous, rich or not.
Over the past five years, femicides in Mexico have increased by 137% due to domestic violence. In 2019 least ten women were murdered every day and shockingly 40% of these women were victims of domestic violence. In January 2020 over 320 women were killed and 73 of those cases were classified as femicide. Even a seven-year-old girl is one of those victims after being found wrapped in plastic by a construction site whilst another victim was skinned alive by her partner, as her corpse was paraded on the front page of a local newspaper. Only 10 of these femicides are solved and if fortunate, are brought to trial. Thankfully due to the increase of coverage concerning the femicide increase and cases, protests and rallies have been organised to provoke the Mexican Government into enforcing further protection measures against these male perpetrators and to possibly try and prevent corrupt law enforcement officers from maintaining their position in the force.
Chile, Ireland, Argentina and some states in America that had previously banned abortions have now decriminalised it or are working towards it. Their bills allowing legal abortions to be accessible, affordable and available to women without legal consequences on their behalf. Not only this but it has allowed a debate towards birth control and female health to become a priority and a right for women.
Without feminism, there is no improvement in our laws and our society. Without our protests and advocacy women may not have the voice or the courage to speak out. Women may or may not be allowed to work, receive an education and have the same rights as men and have rights to their bodies. When people say feminism isn’t needed, there is a need.
Because how will our world, our society, our laws, our workplaces, our health centres and parliaments change if there aren’t equal rights and views of women through the outlet and power of Feminism?
