The Fight For Women's Rights Begins With Awareness part 3

One of the most common absurdities towards feminist is that they are all lesbians, also called lesbian baiting. This type of false information was developed to discourage women from taking part in the fight for women's rights and keeping them in line. As intended, this unfortunate myth makes women afraid to label themselves as a feminist. Proof of this is shown when a 65 year old, conservative grandmother was asked if she would call herself a feminist:

Grandmother: "No, I would not. I don't agree with a lot of the morals that being involved

with feminism represents."

Interviewer: "What's one of the morals you don't agree with?"

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Grandmother: "Well, for one, because of my faith I believe it's a sin for a woman to be in a romantic relationship with another woman. I believe that God intended women to be with men and men to be with women."

Obviously, this woman has been socially constructed into believing that all feminist are homosexual. This opinion is far from true, however, it is important to remember that feminism itself does not believe that being homosexual is wrong. However, while conservative feminist disagree with homosexuality, most feminist support the choice to choose to love someone of the same or opposite sex.

Another preposterous belief about the women who dare to call themselves feminists is that they look down upon other women who choose to raise children and take part in motherhood. Again, it is obvious that this universal misconception turns people away from being associated with feminism. We can see it's affect when the grandmother interviewed above was asked to explain another reason she considered herself to be against feminism:

Interviewer: "What other opinions do you disagree with that feminism supports?"

Grandmother: "Well for one, it's not just what they agree with, it's what they disagree with too."

Interviewer: "And what would that be?"

Grandmother: "Feminist condemn women who choose to live the life of a mother. I raised four children and sacrificed a lot for each and every one of them. They were, and still are, my pride and joy and I will not support a cause that thinks it's a disgrace that I enjoyed being a mother."

In actuality, feminists do not criticize women who choose to have children. In fact, one of their
goals is to make life better for those who want to experience motherhood by improving the
conditions in which they raise their children. (Shaw 16)