[The following (mostly nonsensical) rant is thanks to Varsh Suresh’s illuminating (and extremely well-worded) blog on feminism.  She discusses feminism, equality, and the variety of feminist movements along with how we don't necessarily need to fully understand inequality to know that we are against it.  What our world needs is equality, love, and tolerance, and it is time that we all acknowledged that.  Check out her post “Feminism: The Strong, Unwavering Voice Inside,” on her blog The Lost Afterthoughts!]

Rainbow Waves of Grain...Embracing all colors of breakfast cereals.

            If you have managed to escape or ignore all of the discourse surrounding equality, feminism, and gay marriage in today’s society, it may be time you crawled out from under your covers and power up your favorite news engine, turn on a TV news station, or—perish the thought—read a newspaper.  Whether you like it or not, inequality still persists as a social issue, and it will remain until everyone on this planet is deemed (and perceived to be) equal, regardless of sex, gender, race, and countless other considerations.  And yet while I would consider myself a staunch defender of equality for all, often I find that I do not understand what I am trying to defend and how to defend it.  Which, as can be imagined, often leads to some very interesting dinner table and late-night conversations…

            I don’t know how many of you do this, but my friends and I love to overanalyze everything and have debates on critical issues and controversial topics—even if we all really agree.  We are that group of college students who sit in the caf discussing horrible mascots, only to end up debating whether farmers are really that dangerous or threatening; they aren’t that dangerous, right?  Shay’s Rebellion, huh?  Forgot about that…Touche.  Haha, To-SHAY!  Thus begins a discussion on the roles of farmers in social and political rebellions.  In the mood for a late-night philosophical debate?:  Are we living towards death, dying towards life, or living towards life?  Yeah, I have no idea either.  Sounds pretty deep, though.

            Anyway, to get back to inequality, a recurring theme in our discussions lately has been not simply inequality but the act of labeling people, of putting people in boxes.  Gender?  Usually we are told to pick either male or female.  Hold on, there are other genders out there?  Seriously?  And wait, sex is different from gender?  It’s not?  It is?  It depends?  It depends!  Oh, geez, now I’m lost…And no amount of Judith Butler could ever clear up this mess.  Slogging through an academic’s writing (one who has won the Bad Writing Contest, furthermore) is not the easiest method of gaining understanding, let me tell you.

            So where does that leave us?  How many of you can describe all of the possible genders and identifications that exist?  Honestly, that may not even be possible.  And maybe that’s part of the problem.  We spend so much time trying to identify and classify people; we try to put them in boxes.  And when they don’t fit our description of  “male” or “female” (or even some other label), we force them to choose.  But what if they can’t choose?  Are we coercing people into relinquishing their true identities for the sake of simplicity?

            I mean look at the uproar over the Brony fandom. Here we see a bunch of young adult males joining together in a community that surrounds the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic TV show.  Though meant for young girls, this show has garnered a following of tens of thousands males.  Abashedly, I can admit to having watched a few episodes of the show (solely to see what the fuss was about, of course) and actually kind of enjoying it.  These young men challenge the normal definition of masculinity, and yet are no less masculine than any other male due to their appreciation of the My Little Pony franchise.  The population of Bronies is no less diverse than the general male population, and yet often they are labeled as “gay” and “feminine” because of their preference for the show.  These young men defy the norm, and so we force them into a box without fully understanding them, meanwhile completely misjudging them.

            So, while I cannot say that I fully understand those people who defy gender norms and while I certainly cannot say that I understand the multiplicity of genders and identities out there, I can say that I believe everyone deserves equality.  We cannot just force people to choose between the labels we are used to because we are uncomfortable with those who defy the classical gender norms.  And regardless of popular opinion, feminism is about equality for all sexes and genders, not just for women.  I am a feminist, then, am I not?  No, I am not a perpetually angry, man-hating, masculine and unattractive woman (you’ve got to hate all these negative stereotypes; avoid boxes, people!).  But I am a feminist, a staunch believer in equality for all, and I cannot wait for the day when everyone can accept and embrace everyone else.  To hell with boxes.  They aren’t people-shaped anyway…

P.S.  I love you Walker 10s!!