What Feminism Means to Me: An Essay

I got to "What is feminism?" and had a minor aneurysm because WHO THE HELL DOESN'T KNOW WHAT FEMINISM IS, GOOD GOD YOU'RE FRIENDS WITH MY SISTER and then I finished reading and felt silly.

I feel silly a lot.

Anyway, I thought that I'd make a new blog post about What Feminism Means to Me: An Essay. So here it is, under the cut, what feminism means to me. It's an essay.
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Basically, to me, feminism is about dragons.

Feminism: brought to you by someone on Tumblr

Now, I know what you're thinking. What does feminism have to do with dragons?

Everything, I tell you. Everything.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me explain you a thing.

There are a lot of feminist theories - we've had four waves of feminism thus far.

Picture: FEMINISM

Feminism © seandavey.com

They've ranged from simply "Hey, you men are citizens and you can vote, but we women are also citizens yet we can't vote - we want to be able to vote, because we're citizens, too!"

Image © imowow.org

It's like they think they're people.

to "Hey, we want to be able to work and make our own money so we're not financially dependent on men - and we want to be able to make our own reproductive choices, too!"

Image © journalofamericanhistory.org

The ERA, first introduced in 1923, would have guaranteed legal equality for women.

It has never been ratified.

to "HEY DOUCHEWAFFLES, THE HANDMAID'S TALE WASN'T A FUCKING HOW-TO GUIDE."

And thus Feminism Dragon was born.

All of this has absolutely nothing everything to do with dragons.

You see, the heart of feminism is not, as some have claimed, obtaining the equal treatment of women in society. It is not, in fact, about securing equal protections under law for women, nor is it about getting rid of patriarchal notions of gender and gender roles that inhibit women and men and creates a false gender binary (seriously, there's at least five different sexes - according to Science) that excludes people, such as transgendered and non-gendered and gender-fluid people, from social acceptance - and we're all aware that if you're not socially acceptable, you're far more prone to bullying, being denied employment or housing or medical treatment, and generally being treated like shit.

It's not, as some have claimed, about making sure that women are as much a part of society as men are --- that anyone who is not a straight, white, cisgendered male is as much a part of society as the straight, white (if you're in a European/European descended country) cisgendered men are.

Feminism, to me, is about burning down men's crops and feasting on their flaming corpses.

Because feminism.

Note: Feminists are also well-known to be velociraptors. We travel in packs, and while focusing all of your raging misogyny on one of us, you never see the others until we're eating you alive.

You might say we're ... clever girls.

And that, Brandi, is what feminism means to me.