Feminism Speech 100% PASSED

Before I start, I want to sort one thing out. Feminists are not angry women who hate men. Feminists do not believe women are better than men, or that women deserve special privileges. Feminists do not believe that women are the victims. - In fact, in order to be considered a feminist, you only need to be on board with one idea: All humans, male and female, should have equal political, economic and social rights. Feminism is: and in bold, The belief that all men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. Okay, the first point that I bet you're all wondering before I start is: why is it called feminism if its not only about women? And I can tell you that Feminism, as a movement, strives to include everyone; including men, non-binary people, people of marginalised races, sexualities, and other identity categories. - The feminist movement started as far back as 1852, in order to help women attain equality, reflecting the fact that women have historically been disenfranchised and silenced. Equality would suggest that men would have to come down to a lower level to meet women in the middle. That's not the point. The point is to raise up the femininity so it's on the same playing field masculinity is already on. We don't want men to lower themselves- we just want them to make room for us. - It's the same way we say "black lives matter" instead of "all lives matter," we say "feminism" instead of "equalism" not because certain groups deserve more privileges, but because they just don't have them yet. A simple way of looking at it would be the same way an establishment can be called a cafe and serve more than coffee, feminism is advocating for many groups at once- not just females. - Being a feminist has nothing to do with how you look, what you wear or who you date. Being a feminist doesn't mean you think women deserve special rights; it means you know we deserve equal ones. While a primary purpose of feminism was and is to empower women and oppressed identity groups; it does not mean feminists view all women as weak. Feminists are not aiming to make women stronger; we already know we're strong. We just want society to see that too. - Point one for why we need feminism in the modern world- mental health. Male suicide has increased by 24% in the last 15 years. Studies show that the construction of masculinity, and the expectations of men having to behave a certain way, is one of the main contributing factors.