Feminism of the Future Must Abandon the 'Third Wave' | Nathan Brown

Is there a future for feminism post the social justice warrior political correctness era? Yes absolutely. Does it resemble anything remotely looking like the nonsense we’ve seen on TV recently? Not at all. The gender wage gap, the patriarchy, deliberately unrealistic beauty standards, all men are rapists, gender isn’t real and President Trump. These are some of the things feminists around the world were marching against last week.

Let’s start at the top.

The gender wage gap has been discredited that many times its seems silly to repeat it, but for those who don’t know: the gender wage gap only appears when you calculate the national income of all women, and compare to the national income of all men. ­The gender wage gap does not appear when you compare like for like jobs and consider lifestyle choices and education levels.

The patriarchy. I can safely say that there is no secret group meeting where all men get together and plan how to oppress women and if there is then I certainly haven’t been invited.

As far as beauty standards go, take it from a man, we all like different things in a woman. Some guys like skinny girls, some guys like fat girls, some guys like petite girls, some guys like muscular girls. It would seem to me that if anyone set beauty standards for women it was the fashion industry. Sure, there are some straight guys in the fashion industry, but there are far more men who do not give a damn about the clothes on your back if they keep you warm.

While it is a dark truth that even in western society rape still occurs, it is not a secret fantasy or fetish of every man that walks past you. If every man (estimated 32 million) raped opportunistically then the number of women enduring such horrific attacks (85000) would be far higher. Let’s be perfectly clear, 1 rape is too many, at the same time 0.27% is not every man.  

Gender is determined by your genitals and hormones at birth. The effect of hormones on the mind is so immense that to say gender is a social construct is unscientific at best and bordering on a belief in the flying spaghetti monster at worst.

Let’s not get started on Trump, the mere mention of his name seems to summon time-travelling fairies that go back and change the course of history.

Feminism of the 3^rd wave variety is thankfully, on its deathbed. It would only be polite to allow it it’s last rattles of madness before it slips into the beyond.

Surely it is now time that those wishing to take up the cause, and rally behind the name of feminism fight not against abstract ideas, but real injustices visited on women every day, from Great Britain to Saudi Arabia to Africa. While there are campaigns against female genital mutilation, none seem to have the support that #LoveTrumpsHate had. This isn’t just a cultural difference, it’s physical mutilation and oppression by means of attempting to depriving a woman of the possibility of sexual pleasure in the most barbaric way possible. And what for? Because in some areas of the world that don’t embrace western liberal tolerant thinking, apparently, you will salivate at the next possible opportunity to have sex, because after all you are a woman. In the areas where FGM is practised women are thought of as disobedient property that must be controlled. The horror that these women go through doesn’t stop there. Trapped in violent cultures, they are fair game to some, to be kidnapped and raped. A legitimate way of winning yourself a wife in said cultures. We don’t need to go over the many physical and mental injuries enduring such experiences can cause. But it’s not just in some remote parts of Africa that women are still subject to discrimination and oppression.

In parts of India, motorcycle helmets are only mandatory for men, as “wearing a helmet might cause a woman too not preserve their carefully styled hair and make-up”. In Yemen, where child and forced marriage is still practiced, women are only considered to be half a witness in a court of law. Saudi Arabia has only just reluctantly allowed women to vote, a step better than Vatican City which still only gives the vote to men. But don’t be fooled into thinking Saudi is turning a corner on women’s rights, they still sentence rape victims to public stonings for bringing shame on which ever man is responsible for the victim. The abortion laws in Ecuador are extremely harsh but the most troubling part of this is that there have been cases where the law was used to criminalise a miscarriage.

Germany and Sweden have seen organised mass sexual assaults. The response was high ranking officials telling women to not go out alone after a certain time. The United Kingdom has a growing FGM problem that goes virtually unnoticed; just like the pimping and rape of thousands of young girls. This didn’t happen in just one city but several! Then we have a disposable nightclub culture where it is acceptable to deliberately target drunk women in the hopes that they are so inebriated, or at least so much in need of help, that they will not say no; this leads to just over 9 percent of women who go clubbing 4 times a month being sexually assaulted. Even if feminists aren’t willing to take on the problems women face across the rest of the world, they could look more seriously at their own countries.

We seem to be experiencing a backlash to feminism now, and the problem is that the people poking holes in the gender wage gap are then forgetting to point out the real injustices visited upon some women. Perhaps the slightly more misandrist faction of feminism raised their voices for a time, repeating that feminism was about equality, while saying things like “Seriously we need to kill all male babies”. But if logical, fair feminism that tackles the real oppression were to step forward, then I think you’d be surprised by how many former critics would join the movement.

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