Introduction. (Spoken clip from Malala) Malala Yousafzai is the youngest
recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, winning it at age 17 in 2014. In addition to many
other awards, she has also written an award-winning memoir titled “I Am Malala.”
Malala gained her national publicity after the Taliban shot her in the face on her way to
school on October 9, 2012. The Taliban saw her as a threat due to her constant advocacy
for the right to education and the power of it. When women were being condemned from
schooling, Malala took the opportunity to speak out against it. In 2008 she delivered a
speech titled “How dare the Taliban take away my right to education?” In the following
year she began blogging for BBC, under the false name “Gul Makai.” In her blog she
wrote about living under the Taliban’s threats to take away her education. Though her
false identity online only lasted a few months before her real identity was revealed, she
went on to win the BBC Blogger of the year award later that same year. Her activism also
resulted in her receiving the International Children’s Peace Prize along with Pakistan’s
National Youth Peace Prize. This all occurred years before the Taliban shooting and since
the shooting her activism and global involvement has only increased. The Taliban tried to
silence her but instead they only made her louder.
Body 1. When doing publicity for her new documentary He Named Me Malala,
Malala sat down with Emma Watson and the conversation took a turn Watson was not
expecting. Many feminists are aware of the negative stigmatism around the word
feminism. Watson, the head of the He for She campaign, is especially sensitive to this. As
a result, she was planning on leaving out the question asking Malala if she was a feminist.
This young woman, who survived the Taliban, had not even called herself a feminist even
though she is a constant advocate for women’s education. In the interview, Yousafzai
explained how she was inspired after watching Emma Watson’s United Nations speech.
In the speech Watson has a particularly memorable line: “If not me, who? If not now,
when?” (audio clip of Emma Watson) Malala said that this was the line that made her
stop and realize that she should come out and label herself as a feminist.
Body 2. Personally, I’ve never been scared to call myself a feminist or felt
uncomfortable telling people I am. I was a feminist before I even knew the word. Despite
my strong opinions about feminism, there are many people out there who do not see
feminism as positively as I do. A lot of people still view it with a negative connotation
and as a result there are people out there who are uncomfortable labeling themselves as
feminists. I am not the only one who wonders why people—especially females—are
hesitant to call themselves a feminist. In 2014 Jill M. Swirsky and D. J. Angelone ran a
study evaluating women and the reason why they avoided identifying as a feminist. Their
study revealed that there are three broad reasons as to why their female participants did
not self-identify as one. The first reason is that there are negative stereotypes of
feminism. This includes the ideas that feminism is a form of extremism, it is destroying
society, and that feminists advocate female supremacy, not gender equality. Another
reason is because some view it as unnecessary. Some people do not feel the effects of
gender inequality so they do not feel connected to feminism. A final reason is because
some see feminism as activism and they have the idea that if you are not an activist, you
cannot be a feminist. The most popular reason for these females to not identify as a
feminist though, was because of the negative stereotypes of feminism. One respondent
said “When I think of feminism, I remember the women I went to undergrad with: they
hated men, generally were lesbians, didn’t shave, and would not ever consider any sort of
gender-stereotypical role for women” (Swirsky & Angelone, 2014).
Body 3. Recently I was having a conversation with my friend group and we were
discussing rape. We talked about how if a female gets too drunk and has sex, the male in
the situation could potentially face rape charges. One of my male friends spoke up and
said how messed up that system is if the male is also too drunk. If two people are both too
drunk to actually consent to sex, why is it that the male is more likely to face rape
charges than the female? This conversation was kind of a groundbreaking moment
because I looked at my friend and said, if you see this situation as unequal or unjust, then
you are a feminist. He is not the guy to come out and call himself a feminist because he
does not believe that that is what he believes in. Most males do not realize that feminism
helps them and because they do not realize this very important aspect of it, they help
perpetuate this negative connotation of feminism. It is a domino effect. People do not
think they are feminists, or they do not consider themselves feminists for the wrong
reasons so they connote it negatively, causing other people to not label themselves as
feminists as well. I strongly believe that most everyone—aside from a few extreme
conservatives—is a feminist. It may not all be for the same, or right, reasons, but I
believe that everybody wants to be equal to the person standing next to them. If I am
correct, then everybody should be calling themselves a feminist. It should be weird when
someone is not a feminist. Being a feminist should not be something cool or different
about me, it should be obvious. We have created this society that views equality as a
negative thing and I struggle to understand it. Nobody should be uncomfortable calling
themselves a feminist.
Conclusion. There should not be this feminist closet that people struggle to come
out of. I applaud Yousafzai for publically identifying herself as a feminist but I wish that
it was different. I wish that she had always called herself a feminist. I wish that it was not
such a big deal that she finally has. I am grateful for this positive spotlight placed on
feminism because of Yousafzai, but I wish it was always shown positively. (Clip from
Beyonce’s Flawless)
Works Cited
Albrechtsen, Janet. "The Corruption Of Feminism." Policy 31.2 (2015): 3-6.
Business Source Premier. Web. 24 Nov. 2015
Swirsky, Jill, and D. Angelone. "Femi-Nazis And Bra Burning Crazies: A
Qualitative Evaluation Of Contemporary Beliefs About Feminism." Current
Psychology 33.3 (2014): 229-245. Business Source Premier. Web. 24
Nov. 2015.
Watch Emma Watson and Malala Yousafzai Talk Feminism. Dir. Emma Watson.
Perf. Malala Yousafzai and Emma Watson. Watch Emma Watson and
Malala Yousafzai Talk Feminism. Time Inc, 4 Nov. 2015. Web. 24 Nov.
2015.
Winston, Roisin, et al. "The Next Generation: Young Women On Feminism."
Feminist Theology: The Journal Of The Britain & Ireland School Of
Feminist Theology 20.3 (2012): 262-270. Academic Search Alumni
Edition. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.
Yousafzai, Malala, and Christina Lamb. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for
Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. , 2013. Print.