I wasn’t born a feminist. As I entered womanhood, I became a feminist purely because of my experiences and of those around me; I wasn’t following the herd. Feminism, to me, was what seemed the most logical and natural thing to adopt. It was like choosing my own side and standing up for my own gender. It simply defined the notion that women are humans too. However, as I walked down the “feminism lane”, I found out that it is not all so simple. I realised that people would judge me for merely associating myself – in the mildest possible way – with feminism and therefore, for the longest time, I hesitated to identify as a feminist.
It really bothers me when I see well-read people stereotype and use feminism in a pejorative manner, especially when it is coming from female celebrities and youth icons. I am bewildered and I fail to understand why people can just not look up feminism in a dictionary. Why go with stereotypes when you can look it up and experience it for yourself?
I recently came across a video called “I Am Feminist” by writer and director Inny Taylor. The video consists of a bunch of different women, all from the creative industry, talking about what feminism is to them and how they perceive it. Associated with the creative industry myself, this video has been especially enlightening for me. It tastefully debunks all these modern, man-hating, bra-burning myths about feminism and gives a powerful dose of what it essentially means to be a feminist.
The video deals with a lot of different stereotypes associated with feminism and feminists. It talks about why women need feminism and take a dig at the idea that feminism is not relevant in the modern world where women have “all the empowerment they need.”It also explains why one must never classify women into the “privileged enough” and “not privileged enough” groups.
“I Am Feminist” basically celebrates the idea of being a feminist. You can see women dancing and swirling around as they talk about feminism and why they think they need it the most. They talk about the misogynistic and double standards in the creative industry and how the media portrays women and beauty in an unrealistic light. The video also dissects the idea of beauty and perfection. It explains how the creative industry creates moulds for women and controls their idea of beauty. The women in the video talk about how they are classified into groups; there are set standards and moulds for women to fit in to if they want to survive in this world.
The 7 minutes and 47 seconds video celebrates the global change that women and feminism are going through. This is the why I chose this video over the other thousands of amazing feminist videos out there. It speaks about feminism in a simple and powerful way and why it is what every woman needs.
