Fear of the Unknown

We have discussed in the class earlier in the semester as to why young women do not identify themselves as feminist. We came to the conclusion that many young women do not know what exactly a feminist is or what feminism can do for them personally. We have also talked about how there are not enough women in politics and many of the women in out class admitted to not being fully engaged in politics. In Fear of Feminism, Hogeland briefly talks about the fear of politics in women. I think this is a major reason as to why young women fear feminism. If women do not know what is going on in the political sphere, how can they fight for women’s rights? It would look quite foolish to strive for women’s equality when you do not know what those inequalities are. Politics can be complicated especially if it is something that you aren’t interested in. Although everyone should have some interest because it ultimately impacts you, it can also be quite intimidating. This goes back to not having enough women in politics to represent women and their needs. If more women held political positions, I think more women would become more involved in politics and less fearful of being a feminist.

I think another major why women fear feminism is because they have not been personally affected in a way to be concerned. Young women may have the mentally “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” in their head. Hogeland made a good point in her essay saying, “the longer you live, the more likely you are to have experienced men’s violence or to know women who are survivors of it and thus to have a range and scope of that violence.” This is not just talking about violence against women, but all issues in feminism. If young women haven’t experienced any personal issues in feminism, they feel nothing is wrong and that women have reached equality. There is then a fear to explore the unknown of what they have never experienced. Many young people in general want to experience things for themselves. They want to learn the hard way despite someone telling them “I’ve been there and done that”. For some young women, they may not listen when they are being told that feminism is something to fight for. They may wait until they have experienced something for themselves that leads them out of the dark and tells them what feminism really is, making it more personal.