Why Feminism Still Doesn't Make Sense To Others

Feminism has always been a part of our society, and not as a fully accepted and practiced concept or philosophy but rather just a growing revolution that still awaits validity from at least the majority of people in our society especially from our leaders. I have always written many articles on my personal blog and even papers for school requirements that promote this matter, however I have realized that the fight is not fought by just one army but by a bunch of other troops that somehow just join the bandwagon and totally neglect the main purpose of the fight.

We see many public figures joining the bandwagon, confusing both men and women about the real meaning of feminism, and here are examples (actually criticisms of Meghan Trainor and her really problematic songs):

Meghan Trainor on Body Types

Trainor's song All About That Bass just promoted that a certain body type is better than another

This does not settle the issues we have on body shaming but rather bring women against each other as they are influenced to seek validity and self-esteem through putting other women of different sizes below them. This just repeats the cycle; we bring a group of women down in order to raise another group, and since there is degradation against the group below, then there is another desire to go over the other again rather than just completely abolishing the root of all these which is capitalizing female bodies on media that only continuously set standards instead of showing diversity of female bodies.

Another thing I noticed in this song is this:

This shows that Meghan Trainor uses feminism to perhaps set a certain standard better than others in order to be more attractive than men instead of actually promoting feminism on her song by advocating its real concern which is to make women feel good about themselves without being bothered by social standards mostly based on men's preferences that usually leave no space for women's exercise of freedom. If she were really concerned about how her size is discriminated, she should not degrade other sizes in the first place then eventually connect this whole "advocacy" to the fact that how a woman should look like still has something to do with how men feel about it. Sure, it is not bad to impress or please a man, but it also is another thing to completely base all your choices as a woman off men's usually silly perception of what a woman should be like. Besides, making an individual choice regardless of gender should only be done by oneself alone.

Meghan Trainor's "Future Husband"

Dear Future Husband is also one of Meghan Trainor's hit songs. Some women find it empowering, but as a feminist with a sense of fairness and genuine equality which is also the main point of this movement, I do not find the song empowering even at the slightest. The song shows a stereotypical female character who demands too much from a man in order to get her to be with him--probably just to lead him on with false hopes and leave him with a bunch of expenses (the ending of the music video). It is okay for anyone to have preferences and high standards of their ideal partners of course, but it will always be unacceptable to give someone false hopes or have him/her spend a lot on you especially when you know you are not interested in him/her or if you know you don't treat him/her right. We women have always hated it when men give us false hopes that make some of us spend too much on make up, stunning outfits, fabulous shoes, and more, so why empower other women through just reversing the whole thing instead of working on ending it by practicing the solution ourselves.

Here is a link to the song's music video (watch it to understand where I am coming from):

Reviewing the Lyrics of Dear Future Husband

The lyrics show female's abusiveness towards the male in a relationship which is equivalent to a male's abusive "Do not wear this", "Do not do that" thing and other sexist and manipulative orders they make. This is not empowerment here, but rather entitlement (something that is never good regardless of sex). This silences the other person's opinion. Even people in gay relationships will agree on this, because this is just plain toxic.

This part depicts a relationship wherein the female is in control. Again, this is not female empowerment. This is not feminism AT ALL! This is an unhealthy manipulation over a partner. I should say that this also comes from the "treat me like a princess" mentality when by simply looking at it, relationships are partnerships and never supposed to be slavery or anything like it (watch the music video for reference). This is an obvious unfair deal. This is a female character that deprives her partner (in this case male, but could be a different gender as well) from seeing his family while she gets to see hers as often as she wishes--a very unhealthy and abusive setup that still promotes female entitlement. Also, being treated right doesn't mean being treated as a higher person but rather being treated with respect and there is a fine line between the two.

Why Feminism Still Doesn't Make Sense To Others

My examples show how media plays a big part in this movement. Feminism is often advocated in social media and other forms of media. Media is our second society even. Celebrities play a big part in this second society of ours. We aspire to be like them, we listen to them more than we pay attention to our school lecturers and parents even. We basically look up to them and get easily influenced by their ways. Now, when celebrities like Meghan Trainor use feminism in her songs and miss the real vision and mission of the movement, the fight becomes petty in the eyes of others. It becomes a confusing and complicated matter as female superiority is addressed in her songs. It conflicts with her said desire to have feminism be recognized and practiced. There are other celebrities who commit these errors in promoting feminism. They somehow just join the bandwagon, capitalize on the whole concept, earn from it, and forget the rest of the purpose of the movement leaving their fans confused and withdraw support from the essence of feminism and just forget the genuine meaning of it which based on one of the first results on Google, is a range of political movements, ideologies, and social movements that share a common goal:

to define, establish, and achieve political, economic, personal, and social rights for women.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism)