I Hate Feminism (Opinion)

What is Extremism? It is a word being bandied around at leisure in recent years and is something we need to understand.

The most obvious example at the moment would be "Islamic Extremists". It is a phrase used by people who (and this bit is important) claim that there actions are due to their devotion to Islam and against those who are seen to decry Islamic beliefs. Their actions are aggressive, terrorist based with little legitimate backing either by an internationally viewed government or by the majority of Islamic religious figures.

And yet it is not this bloodthirsty, stand alone viewpoint we focus on but the fact that they claim to be Muslims. This then leads to the vile racist behaviour we see on our streets (either directly or on the news).

It is  a viewpoint which is transmitted to the masses and used as a battlecry around campaigns to "get rid of Johnny Foreigner". The Brexit campaign was (as I have previously stated) an appalling campaign based on lies and the leave (for economic/sovereignty reasons) campaign (in my opinion) did not do sufficient to distance itself from those who were just using it as an excuse to close borders and promote racist language (and indeed attacks) - something which multiplied in the days/weeks after the result.

All that both "extreme" views have managed to do is to enable mistrust and separate us along lines of nationality and race - something which I genuinely had hoped we were starting to see the back of.

But do we see the same thing in other extremist viewpoints. Let us use Feminism as an example. On similar lines to racism, the differentiation of individuals based upon their gender has gone on for millennia. This is obviously wrong, men and women should be treated equally with equal opportunities to all. Again though we need to clarify. Equally does not mean the same. If we were to treat everyone the same, children's bedrooms would have no individuality, female toilets would have urinals in them (after all should women not have the choice to stand whilst peeing?).

I like being a gentleman; standing up to allow an older person to sit on the bus instead of me is clearly the right thing to do. I would always allow a woman to get off first - is this sexism? Holding the door, offering to buy a drink - are these honourable acts or seeing a woman as being unequal?

So what I guess I am trying to say is that I hate that there are these extremist views out there - but I understand. For too long minorities (does the female gender count as a minority when they make up roughly half of the population?) have been mistreated and because of this with increasing freedom they want to have their voices heard and so they feel the need to shout - I just wish it wasn't so.

I leave you with a few questions to ask yourself.

Is positive discrimination a good/bad thing?
Do we treat people with equality or the same?
Does shouting make lasting changing - or is change more effective in a controlled environment?

Feedback appreciated.