OPINION: Feminism needs a course correction

By Amelia Biscardi,
BlueDevilHUB.com Editor–

While the recent women’s march at the Capitol, the issue of equality has once again resurfaced. While many people do agree with equality, people within the United States do not necessarily call themselves feminists.

A Vox poll from 2015 said that 18 percent of people within the United States would consider themselves feminists and a poll from the Huffington Post from 2013 and a YouGov poll said that the number was 23 percent. The same Vox poll found that 85 percent of people believed in equality for women.

So what’s the problem? How come people believe in equality for women yet they do not consider themselves a feminist?  

The reason why they don’t is actually quite simple; the feminist movement has gotten out of hand.

There has been three waves of feminism and the first two were pretty straightforward and ended women’s suffrage and gave rights such as the right to vote and equality in the workforce. However, this current third wave of feminism, while it has begun the #MeToo movement, is not something people want to join.  

The current form of feminism can be kind of scary. They are polarizing even amongst themselves with some feminists banning the symbolic pink hat because it was not inclusive enough to all races and the LGBQ+ community. Seriously, if you wanna wear a pink hat, wear a pink hat.  

Most feminists are reasonable people, however, in the news we are not always hearing from those people as much as we are hearing from those with opinions that are out there. One of the problems with our society is that in order to be heard, you have to be outrageous and these very vocal, out-there feminists that are often, but not always, portrayed in the news.

And this is not someone that you would want to show to younger children. Their views are polarizing in feminism which causes millenials and the younger generations not to be attracted by feminism.

At its core, feminism is a great idea and it’s something that we must continue to strive for.  However having these outrageous feminists who are stealing the limelight is not helping their cause.

In order for feminism t

o be successful, it needs to cut ties with some of the out there feminists that are hurting their image and to focus on their message of equality.  Once they have that, then maybe they will have the millenials backing them and they can continue on adding generations.