For the past few years I’ve been fighting with the concept of freedom. In the third year of university I wrestled with race and the notion of the imprisonment of the ‘other’. I toiled with truth, religion and secularism. I hit horns with consumerism and the age of uncontrolled desire. And in my doing I became a recluse, a hermit hiding in his own mind constructing new philosophies I personally believed will be well fitting to the world in the future. And as I drifted away from the world seeking to understand it. I noticed that I imprisoned myself. I too became a victim of that which I sought to decipher and after months of curing myself from this venom which I allowed into my thought pattern. Again I stumbled across a social ideology which has troubled my mind ever since coming across it in A-levels Sociology, one which questions another person’s freedom. But before diving into this ideology and why I am writing this today let me give a brief history of myself that will illustrate clearer for those that might find offence in that which I have to say today. I was brought up for the first seven years of my life in Nigeria by a resilient, strong and wise mother before migrating to the United Kingdom and joining my dad. Jean Paget and many other child development psychologists agree that the first few years of a child are critical for developing a child with correct moral thinking. My mum did exactly that and went the extra mile to embed in us gender equality. My mum brought us up on the foundation of Christianity therefore love and equality reigned in our house. Additionally, because storytelling plays a huge role in Nigerian Parenting. I remember the stories she use to tell us every night. I remember how she taught us morality and decency. I remember how she taught us how to practice love unconditionally and to avert hate. These moral codes have I kept from my youth up. From this simple illustration hopefully you have gathered and have understood a little bit about myself and my mentality. The social ideology which I am going talk about is the infamous feminism. One which has had a great presence in the contemporary world over the last few decades. For a male to talk about such a controversial topic one must be careful not to veer of track and be considered a misogynist. So in some sense I am treading on thin ice. I've always supported that which I would like to call sophisticated feminism, one which speaks on fighting for gender equality, rape and respect. However the neo-feminism that’s now rising. The contemporary bare your nipples and grow out your arm pit hair movement I'm not supportive of. I believe that not that many young girls are truly educated about feminism. I assume that they feel like paying homage to it not because of the history but because it’s associated with their gender. Therefore it has come to my understanding that the lack of the understanding of feminism for over the last two decades have been transported into this generation. And with the aid of the media it has infiltrated itself into some peoples subconscious. In the past the media has feed us patriarchal propaganda on gender roles. Now its feeding us with its own definition of feminism which I believe it’s a strategy for fooling young-women that truly to be equal they must be sexualized. If you truly look at it. What teenage boy fuelled, with hormones is really going to respect a woman because they are fighting to free the nipple in public and becoming oversexualized just to be called an independent woman? Don’t get me wrong I didn't say wear a veil and cover yourself completely you can do what you want with your body. But my understanding of feminism is a sophisticated one. I praise the women fighting to end sex trafficking, I praise the women fighting to make tampons free. I praise the women fighting against rape globally. I praise the suffragettes. These are what I believe is to be truly a feminist. Examine how fast the media has changed over the last fifteen years and you will be left astonished. The media glorifies women that are living and behaving outrageously and labels the ones not following in the same way as boring. You can become famous for having a sex tape, being pregnant under-age and partying and having one night stands on TV. As I write this I hear someone saying “get with the times” but you must take your time to consider that if society was to become truly gender equal, they need to be a move from this acceptance of the so called feminist act of outrageousness into one which praises women who are truly fighting for change. Therefore to conclude my infuriated rambling, I believe that neo-feminism is created by men on high position of influence, you know, men of other generations such as Rupert Murdoch who have different mind-set on gender roles and have with great strategy influenced and deceived some women that by being on a leach created by them they are truly liberated. Which I believe is a fools dream. The world with all honesty and without sounding too much like a pessimist (which I am not) as it gradually proceeds will never become an egalitarian world. Some women are letting the majority down by dancing to the music played by the minority of men whom run the world. The notion of an independent woman can only come through sophistication. Therefore to the women whom believe that an independent woman is one whom uses her sexuality to gain freedom. In the end you are still doing exactly what a majority of men want you to do.
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