There comes a time in the mother eagle’s life where she looks down at her beautiful, chirping eaglets and boots them from the nest. On their terrifying trip toward an ever approaching ground, the current hits their spread wings and they fly. The reason is simple; they are eagles. The Women’s Movement flew in a similar direction. Women spread their wings and took to the skies.
Naturally, an eagle will act as an eagle. Any conduct not permissible to an eagle was not tolerated. Under the umbrella of unacceptable behavior was domestic abuse. Oddly, before the Women’s Movement, domestic abuse wasn’t a thing. A husband hitting his wife was as common as a Tuesday. With this new empowerment, Tuesdays would never be the same. Why did it take a movement on such a grand scale to address this issue?
Turbulent winds were all to common for these young eagles. One of those discomforting winds was sexual harassment. Sexual harassment in the workplace was so common that it should’ve been added to the job description. It wasn’t even fine print subtle or hidden deep in the terms and conditions. But, it’s vital to remember. We’re talking about eagles, not helpless chickens. Women made their voices heard and forced a change in the law and in the behavior of men in the workplace. Without such a movement, would sexual harassment still be a problem in the workplace?
Often, turbulent winds are the precursors of a violent storm. That storm was the prevailing attitude toward rape. Strangely, this crime was seen as the victim’s fault. It wasn’t enough to be violated in one of the worse possible ways, but the people who should sympathize kicked the victim as they were down. True, we don’t live in a perfect world, but there is something shockingly disturbing and dehumanizing about the mental process to blame the victim. More so, how does this perspective help the victim heal? Women had enough and they made their deafening screech heard across the country. Women challenged the idea that rape was the victim’s fault. They shifted blame where it belonged, on the perpetrators—on men. Don’t rape, seems like an easy concept, but sadly even today, we still need to make progress on this issue.
In his renowned song, I believe I can fly, R. Kelly sang “I believe I can touch the sky.” In that regard, the Women’s Movement has come close to reaching that distant horizon of equality, but we aren’t there yet. With issues such as unequal pay, a push for maternity leave, sexism, objectification and learning to balance work and family, there is plenty of work to do.
In conclusion, feminism has become a dirty word that many refuse to associate with. Feminism, in truth, is about freedom so that everyone can be free to fly and touch the clouds.
Why has feminism become such a touchy subject? How has feminism affected your life?