Monday, September 29

Feminist lovers

"We are different than you."
"You are mean to us."
"It is US, against THEM."
"Love everyone... Except those guys..."

Most feminists are ignored these days because feminists have become synonymous with men-haters. It's an unfortunate thing really, because in reality feminists just want to be treated equal, but we've done a right ol' job of making it bloody difficult to love us women if we're attacking those we want to accept us.

And that's part of the problem, right there. US and THEM. Since when was "this" human over here with these select differences made out to be somehow better than "that" human over there for their select differences? Since when was it so abnormal for us to be both human and unique? Since when was it OK to try to make everyone the SAME? Being EQUAL does not mean we are the SAME.

I think it's about time we saw ourselves for what we really are: alive. All of us.

And yet that's hard to imagine others loving people that hate them, let alone ourselves acting out of grace and love toward someone who hurts us. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is the general motto. "If you do that, I'll do the same." or "If you do this, I'll react to it and show YOU what I think!"

But as Byron Katie says, "Defence is the first act of war."

As soon as we put our boxing gloves on, no matter the intention behind why we put them on, we immediately place ourselves at opposite sides of the ring. Me against you. Us against them. Winner against loser.

Is it so hard to see that when one person is acting out, they are just hurting? I believe in the natural goodness of humanity. I believe we have something worth loving for, not fighting for. I truly believe embracing an enemy in love is a more courageous act than holding a gun to shoot them.

May it be soon that we break out of the HE and SHE mentalities into the WE mentality. May it be soon that we come together and love ourselves for WHO we are.

Let's celebrate life. Let's celebrate differences. <3


2 comments:

Kotarah said...

It was only recently that I began calling myself a feminist. Because I've been with Ryan, who's an incredible gentle human being, I've realized how that most women treat men equally as horrible if not worse than they treat us. It took a friend calling me out on what true feminism is for me to understand that feminism is about treating humans with love. The reason why feminism has gotten a bad reputation is because most feminist try to fight hate with hate. That's like trying to dig a hole with a straw. Completely counter-productive. I'm happy you wrote a post on this. Thanks, friend!

Unknown said...

Yes, I agree with you. Feminism is just another label for loving everybody, which is what life is all about. Loving everyone, everywhere. :)