Feminism in the United States has fought for women’s political, economic, and cultural freedom since the mid-19th century. One current TikTok trend shows that you can fight gender inequality on your own.
It started in January when user Molly Barrie uploaded a video, inviting people to share the “subtle feminist power moves” they do on the regular, and it wasn’t long before the clip spread all over the platform. We thought it would be interesting to check out some of the most popular submissions since International Women’s Day is around the corner.
1.
I work in a male-dominated industry. It is not unusual for top executives to get very disrespectful or raise their voice in a meeting where they are not getting their way without fail. I hit them with the idea that they should take a five-minute break to get over their feelings.
The majority of Americans think the country has not gone far enough to give women equal rights with men a century after the 19th Amendment was passed.
Among the individuals who think the nation actually has work to do in accomplishing orientation balance, 77% feature lewd behavior as a significant hindrance to ladies having equivalent privileges with men, 67% highlight ladies not having similar legitimate freedoms as men, 66% aren’t content with various cultural assumptions for people, and 64% say insufficient ladies are in important, influential places.
To look into the things these ladies are going through, we reached part-time task official/part-time blogger and full-time women’s activist from England, Nyomi Winter.
“I noticed sexism most once I had children,” the founder of the online magazine Nomipalony told. “The expectation that you will be primary carer whilst you try to maintain a career is really challenging. We aren’t making nearly enough progress with the gender pay gap and in turn the pension pay gap. Workplace changes could make an enormous difference to equality.”
2.
When a man interrupts a woman in a group social setting, I don’t look at him. I keep looking at the woman he interrupted. I interrupted him and asked the woman what he was saying. She always smiles.
In the UK and the US, only a small percentage of young women would call themselves a feminist.
It could be that they don’t like the term because of the stereotypes associated with feminism. (“Feminists don’t wear makeup, they don’t shave their legs, and they hate all boys.”)
She believes that today’s feminists are more intersectional than ever and that she is happy with the direction the movement is going in. “I’m so impressed by today’s young feminists. We are more aware of ‘white feminism’ and I think the Black Lives Matters movement has really pushed the Global Ethnic Majority to the front of the conversation in the past couple of years.”
3.
So I am a tall lady. I’m around 5’10, 5’11ish, and assuming I will be going into a gathering where I realize that there will take care of business who will attempt to talk over me or disparage me or apply pressure where needed, I will intentionally wear the biggest heels, similar to the greatest heels that I have, which make me like 6’2, 6’3 so I can remain close to them and peer down on them and advise them that in addition to the fact that I am a counterpart for you mentally, yet I could step on you.
TikTok user Emily Tangerine is one of the people who responded to Molly with a video of her own. “I came across this trend on my ‘For You’ page,” Emily told. “I follow a ton of women who are comedians and professionals in their respective fields and activists. So this prompt was surely going to come my way.”
She thinks that sexism in today’s society is complex. She thinks misogyny in today’s society is a really complex system. “I’d say the most oppressive force of it that is visible is the legislation that directly targets women (but will surely affect those who don’t identify as female but have a uterus) and somehow it doesn’t affect men,” Emily said. “Like the Texas abortion ban. There is currently no legislation against men’s bodies, yet we all know it takes two to tango.”
Emily sees women’s lives improving as the older generation of men fades into oblivion. “I see more and more women enrolling in college and that’s going to help the situation. And I see more and more women stand up for themselves in social situations. “I stood up to my old male professor just this Friday. Women aren’t allowing men to treat them like dog shit anymore and that eventually leads to legislation. Heck, we might even get one more woman on the Supreme Court.”
4.
I regularly guarantee that men don’t have arms. Listen to me. So I was having a discussion with a colleague as of late and she was discussing the way in which she needed her child to wed a lady who could cook. Furthermore, I said ‘why?’ And she said ‘Well, he can’t cook’ And I said ‘Good gracious, does he not have arms?’ And then, at that point, she was like ‘no, he’s simply a man’ And I was like ‘However he has arms’ And then, at that point, she just needed to clarify that he planned to rely upon a lady to take care of him for the remainder of his reality with like, two entire arms. No doubt men don’t have arms.
“Sometimes [the situation] feels really bleak (like with the recent tragic murders of Sarah Everard, Bibaa Henry, Nicole Smallman, and Sabina Nessa),” Nyomi added. “But I do think that social media has opened up conversations that we just weren’t having in the mainstream a decade ago.”
“The Me Too Movement has led to real industry changes (including arrests). The movement following Sarah Evarard’s murder led to an outpouring from women on social media the likes of which I’ve never seen. I wrote 20 actions men can take to be better allies to women at this time and it was one of my most-read posts that year. Yes, change is too slow but we have to have hope that it’s coming and in the meantime, we keep fighting!”
They’re not the only optimists. More than eight-in-ten Americans say that the country has not gone far enough to give women equal rights with men in the future. Let’s hope so!
