The modern feminist movement, which has been gaining exponential momentum since the earliest women's suffrage movements, is all about equality.
Equality between the sexes, between men and women and everything in between. Yes, we deserve the right to vote, the right to equal pay, employment and education. We deserve the right to live a life free of discrimination.
But lately, I have come to wonder if the battlefront against discrimination has shifted. It seems that in addition to fighting against institutionalized discrimination by men, women are now faced with the challenge of fighting discrimination by self-righteous feminist elitists.
My awareness of this issue only came into focus here at IU. Career plans and life goals are naturally a frequent topic of conversation on college campuses. The first thing I noticed is the condescending look many female students give their colleagues dare they speak the unspeakable declaration of doom: "I'd like to take some years off work to raise a family."
My fellow IU women, utter these perilous words only if you're ready for the so-called feminists around you to look at you like a cockroach.
Apparently, many in our generation seem to think that a woman is worthless unless she devotes her entire life to career-oriented goals. A woman who has children, well, she is a trophy on her husband's mantelpiece. Look at my fabulous career! I managed to make some babies in between as well! I didn't lie when I put multitasking as a skill on my resume!
Expect a similar response if you admit to any of the following feminist sins:
-- "My mother doesn't work."
-- "I want to have kids before I'm 35."
-- "I wouldn't get an abortion."
-- "My boyfriend paid for dinner last night."
I don't quite understand what motivates some feminists to look down on other women who choose lifestyles different from their own. Isn't the entire feminist movement about choices? Isn't the whole purpose of this movement to give women the opportunity to choose to be something other than Susie Homemaker?
The snobby, conformist women of today are actually being counterproductive to what their predecessors set out to do.
Before, a woman was stigmatized for going outside her designated gender role by working. Now it's the opposite. Women who choose to stay at home are looked down upon or mocked as something less than those who work.
Just because you have the option to live alone while working 70 hours a week in corporate America doesn't mean your education went to waste if you don't.
Just because you have the option to keep all your body hair intact doesn't mean you betray womankind by shaving your legs.
Just because you have the option to freeze your eggs until you're 47 years old and "established" enough to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for in vitro fertilization doesn't mean your career will fail if you don't.
Just because you have the option to hand your first-grader a house key and a packet of Kraft Easy Mac while you're at work doesn't mean you'll be barefoot and pregnant for all eternity if you choose to stay home and cook.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go paint my nails.
