Why we must all be Feminists

Positive patriarchy is apparently now a thing.
- innocent women fluttering their eyelashes to get men to do their grocery shopping
- helpless women running to male colleagues because they are incapable of solving complex problems
- weak women incapable of managing hectic schedules
These are stereotypes, and like all stereotypes is both lazy and acts as a self fulfilling prophecy.

Call a woman emotional, and every time she reacts emotionally it reinforces the branding.
Keep a woman off the streets at night, and her absence makes the streets more unsafe.
To say women cannot manage hectic schedules is the biggest joke of all. Even women who are denigrated as mere “housewives” multitask and manage daily emergencies better than most men.
The very foundation on which a case for ‘positive patriarchy’ is made is weak.
But my concern is with the term itself.
Patriarchy, by definition is “a social system in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property.”
Patriarchy is unequal. It cannot be positive.
Feminism, on the other hand, is built on a foundation of equality.
Feminism by definition is a range of social movements, political movements, and ideologies that aim to define, establish, and achieve the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes.
Feminism does not, as many believe, say women are superior to men. Nor is feminism meant to trash men.
Feminism speaks of equality. Of equal access to opportunity. Of creating an enabling environment that does not hold anyone back because of their gender.

Equality should be easy.
But in a world that has been constructed and maintained by patriarchy, equality does require some to give up privileges that they are not even conscious of.
Men need to pitch in to create the enabling environment for women to access opportunities.

Though ‘feminism’ continues to be a largely misunderstood term even among women, an increasing number of men now understand what feminism means, and identify as feminists.
But they are balanced by the women who act as gatekeepers of patriarchy. Women who hold back other women by questioning them, shaming them and preventing their growth.
No system built on inequality can be ‘positive’.
What we need is not ‘positive patriarchy’ but feminism.

Where to solve a complex problem, you go to the person, regardless of gender, who is best suited for that task.

Feminism is for everybody.