Monday, November 26, 2012
English IV Women's Rights Journal
The basic concept behind the issue of women's rights is that women and men are equally human and should have equal stature in society. Few westerners now challenge that concept, yet many dislike or reject such labels as "feminism," preferring instead to speak of "human rights" or "women's rights". What do these three labels mean to you? Write a brief explanation of which term you find most meaningful and why you prefer it over the other two terms.
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These three labels "feminism", "Women's rights", and "human rights" to me seems to divide the same cause by boxing out a specific part of the problem. What exactly are "women's rights"? we're all human are we not? so why specifically box out women when we're all human and should have the same rights to everything on this planet. It's the same concept with feminism. In fact feminism more than likely wouldn't even exist if we were all given the same rights from the get go. What gives man any more right to anything in the world than women? it shouldn't be a constant struggle for women, or for anyone in general to have to fight so hard for the god given rights of living on this planet. So "human rights" is the most meaningful to me because power should be equally distributed instead of abused and used to oppress. to take the topic deeper, rights in general should be given to every living thing on this planet. For instance animals, what gives your the right to slaughter a living organism that to just like you has a family and a way of living? They were to put on this planet for a reason, not just for food. But thats just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAs a human race, people are labeled constantly and as a very easily manipulated race we become accustomed to those demeaning titles. I agree with Ptah’s statement that feminism, human rights and woman rights are just labels that are dividing one whole concept of equality. Webster’s definition of woman’s rights is legal, political, and social rights for women equal to those of men, but why do woman have to have their own separate way of gaining rights? If we are all living human beings, why are rights divided into two categories? I believe that religion has made it seem as though men are the rightful ones to lead the way and force woman to follow as guided. As a result most people are okay with the traditional way of living. Human right means that every human in this existing world has that same rights as every other person. The fact that we’re divided shows what kind of society we have become. Everyone is entitled to their human rights and should never be denied them.
ReplyDeleteIn many societies ‘feminism’ is looked down upon; hardly tolerable the female herself, fore she is considerably stereotyped and utterly inacceptable for a male. Now that’s not right. Seemingly, to be feminine is to be less than – a rollercoaster ride filled with incompetent, ‘girly’, emotionally crazed twists and turns. The term “women’s rights” on the other hand, unfortunately, is no better. Yes its campaign is significant in reducing those stereotypes and the limitations evidently bestowed upon ladies. Yet even the terminology itself is inhuman. Are our essences not good enough to be synthesized within the big picture? Are we not worthy to be considered via ‘human rights’? Personally I’d prefer human rights to mention everyone. Though us fighting for our rights will never cease, I think it’s best to not subcategorize a human’s rights. Whether it’s race or gender, a person or a people, human rights includes everyone. All that ‘women’s rights’ and ‘feminism’ stuff are just superfluous and actually derogatory. Honestly, it’s a new era, include never exclude. Was that not the mission in the first place?
ReplyDelete-Uneek
Between all the three different labels they are all meaningful and they all have something behind the meaning that just makes it good. “human rights”. Hear human rights I think of all the things going on but it also means to me that everyone deserves the same rights. Doesn’t matter your gender at all so why would women be label as different from the others? It should be under the same rights as the others we all deserve to be equal. Doesn’t mean it will happen but we can make a difference in women rights as well were all humans from different cultures followed by religion, point of view of life and the final stage of being either female or male. Regardless on all these things we all need to be treated the same and fight for all the same things. When “feminism” comes to my ears I just think of what society thinks of women and how they want to keep molding them into. Something that sometimes women can’t seem to overcome, and we will keep being degraded by the whole other society. When I think of “women’s rights” I think of women actually fighting for what they what but over time our society has somewhat evolved. But we still have so much to do; at times we don’t notice all the things we can do to change the things around us.
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear the term “feminism” it has a negative connotation to it. It seems like that term is implying that they are soft. “Masculinity” has a tough, strong connotation and “feminism” has the total opposite connotation attached with it. “Human rights” have a more general, equal feeling attached to it. The term “human rights” implies that people are fighting for the world to be equal as humans rather than just fighting for a particular sex. “Women’s Rights” has a sexist tone to it. It seems as if you only care about women’s rights and no one else’s rights matter anymore. There is no such thing as “Men’s Rights” so there shouldn’t be a thing as “women’s rights.” I believe “human rights” is the most meaningful term because women should be treated as humans and not some other species. The other terms imply that women aren’t humans but some other type of species. If you have “human rights” than you are treating everyone like humans and they are being treated equally.
ReplyDeleteFeminism is defined as the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. Human rights are defined as fundamental rights, especially those believed to belong to an individual and in whose exercise a government may not interfere, as the rights to speak, associate, work, etc. Lastly, women's rights are referred to as the rights claimed for women, equal to those of men, with respect to suffrage, property, the professional fields, etc. When I think of women's rights, one of the first things that occur to me is the fact that they are fighting for their privileges in which they believe men recieve an unfair amount of in comparison to them. All throughout history, we have seen a clear distinction between the benefits of being a male and being a female. My interpretation of feminism is an act of fighting for and aggressively supporting the idea of equal rights for women. To be quite honest, when I think of a feminist, I think of a person who almost thinks completely negative about the male sex because they want to be the dominant gender. All three terms share the focus of these valuable rights, however, in my opinion only one term in particular refers to all humans as equal. While feminism and women's rights lean more towards the female sex, human rights includes all people instead of drawing a line down the two genders. All humans eat, sleep, and breathe the just the same. All humans have been born from a mother and have originated from two biological parents. What difference does it make that in our species, we have two different genders? They exist for many reasons including reproduction. It takes two to create an addition to the human population and considering that women take a lot of responsibility for bringing children(boys and girls) into this world, I believe that the two genders should be given the same amount of rights. Most of the people that disagree with this idea of gender equality, in fact, would not be born if it weren't for women.
ReplyDeleteThe terms “feminism” “Human rights”, and “Women's rights” are very similar. They all share the idea that every person in the world should have equal opportunities to touch success. Not one specific sex should be more superior than the other. I find Women’s Rights more significant due to the fact it promotes equality for specifically women who has been considered subordinate in society since the beginning of time. In history there had been heroes, who would fight to defend their land and the people in early history, but they are mostly men. Barely women would fight physically for something and therefore they would stay home and keep it safe. This idea began to evolve as time went on. In the Medieval Era women were forced to stay home and obey whatever their husband said without any objections, in the 1900s women were able to work but in harsh conditions with little pay, and early 21st century women who worked good jobs and got paid well were discriminated by men. Women’s rights will revolutionize the idea that women should just play their roles that was handed down to them by society throughout history. With Women’s rights, discrimination because of someone’s gender will not be an issue. Women are allowed to work jobs that are suppose to be only for men, for example women could be engineers, construction worker, or even become the president, all without being discriminated against.Women’s right must be fought for, through non-violence in order to enforce its concepts. I believe women’s rights are better than the other terms because it shows women are tired from being oppressed, now they are fighting for what they should have. This is very inspirational since they know they couldn't really change the world that much, but they could try to spark the minds of the people who could.
ReplyDelete-Ralph Cola
This is a big controversy world wide, I believe there has and always will be problem with equal problems with men and women and there rights. I believe that even though women's rights have gotten slightly lenient over time there will still be conflicts and this is not right. No matter female or male we are all one thing human beans all on plant earth. We have developed so much in such a short period of time I believe that the way women still get labeled to this day is such a horrific ordeal leading to an abundance of issues. The term "feminism" i find it as a almost racial slur from a guy's point of view. Who are we to use such a word to degrade women? Now "Women's Rights", and "Human Rights" sound much better and wouldn't degrade women in such a bad matter. We are all given rights and born with rights the women of this world need to stand up for them selfs because in the end we are all the same and we all deserve equal rights as people of this planet earth.
ReplyDeleteLindsay Price-Friend
ReplyDeleteI find “women’s rights” and “human rights” are the most meaningful to me. Feminism is the advocating women, whereas women’s rights are more describing what women are allowed to do, or all the freedom that they have; to be more general “Human Rights are describing what people are allowed to do” both men and women. To me feminism does not directly relate to human rights and women’s rights, mainly because it is mostly based on the women who are trying to fight for their rights, whom do not have all the rights that they wanted. On the other hand, specifically stating “women’s rights” focuses more on the privileges and abilities that are already deemed suitable for women. “Human rights” pretty much state that if you are human then you will have these rights and no one will or can take them away from you and it is both referring to males and females. All in all I think that women’s rights is the best used because it is specific and also gives a connotation of how far women have come already in many different societies that they are looked down upon.
Alexandria McIntosh
ReplyDeleteOver the years women's roles have been labeled as the under dog or lower class men. But the words feminism , human rights and women rights come up and put us all in different categories . I think feminism is focused on what makes a women a women whether it be the way we dress or act. With human and women rights I feel as though women always want to be equal n considered just as the same like men but try to put themselves in a separate groups for rights. As human we all deserve to be treated the same no matter what gender you are.
To me, feminism conjures up out-of-date images of the 1960’s-1970’s, which I know is an incorrect assumption. My primary reaction to the word “feminism” is to think of empowered women. My secondary reaction when I think of the word is Jenny from Forrest Gump. I know that Jenny wasn’t a women’s activist, but she was a strong-minded individual. Feminism was the forbearer to women’s rights.
ReplyDeleteWomen’s rights has a stronger meaning to me. It is a very straightforward phrase, with little hidden meanings. It is a driving force that women everywhere can push behind. But that’s the problem. It’s women’s rights. A man could be turned off by the phrase, feeling that he is supporting a cause that affects him, but isn’t for him. (The selfishness of a man that doesn’t like women’s rights because it says “women” is for another topic.) To be more neutral to the sexes, one could also use the phrase “human rights”.
Human rights is probably the worst phrase of these three. It is extremely vague (human rights for what?). When referring to rights of humans, human rights is the right phrase to use. However, when referring to women, human rights is not clear enough. Human rights is an adjustment made to please the men who want to help women’s rights, but don’t want to be caught supporting a female cause.
Women’s rights is the best phrase of the three. Feminism is antiquated, and the phrase human rights is a byproduct of bigotry. Women’s right verbally demonstrates the idea of the movement better than all three.
Through history “Women’s Rights”, “Human Rights”, and “Feminism” have been looked at in a negative way. Many would claim that feminist want them to adjust their social power in society. People think that feminism is full of radical women that are angry with every man they see. These stereotypes have plagued the movement and made it look undesirable even though the stereotypes are not true. Feminism has very essential views that help women continually get rights. Women’s Right is a movement that helps the female gender be treated more fair compared to their male counterparts. There are also stereotypes that hang around the movement like being weak or not really down for the cause, but there stereotypes are not true. But Human Rights is not just females, it includes all people of color, race, and ethnicity. I think that singling out one specific category in the human race and saying that they needed to be treated more fairly isn’t enough. People should fight for human rights so them everyone could be equal.
ReplyDeleteFor feminism, it's looked down upon for the simple fact that it seems like a woman's touch. It derives from the word feminine. People like to say certain things or even people are “feminine” because it has the intuition of a woman. Human's rights simply points to the humans in general. The rights of both men and women. As for woman's rights, it points to just a woman individually like a woman only has certain and peculiar rights when it comes to men. There's no such thing as men's rights, but on the other hand, they never had to fight to be treated equally with women as women had to fight to have equal rights with men. Men and women should be treated equally in any circumstance including race. I think I'd go with Human Rights for the simple fact that it points out humans in all although it doesn't really makes sense since we should all treat each other like human beings since we are all of that nature. Then again, I can't speak for us all, telling by the slavery acts in the past and even some still going on today.
ReplyDeleteWhen we talk about "womans rights" people think like woman have no type of rights but they really do now. How? well they get to vote and they get to do jobs men do. But back in Mary Wollstonecraft time she was right there was not type of women rights and i would agree with her that woman should have some type of rights I am not saying all equal as men becasue lets face the facts they are not as strong as men and well in this world we live in sexist and its not the people's fault to think like that its just how we was raised in this society and we tend to put men more then women. Now I am not saying it should be like that but some women now a days have been more successful then some of todays men. Now I also think there shouldnt be no such thing called as women rights because there really isnt something called men rights so as far as that goes yes everyone should be treated as equal people thats what women want so why not.
ReplyDeleteFeminism is a word that needs to be thought through. When you think of the way it sounds you instantly come up with the word female, or you simply think of women. According to the dictionary feminism means: the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. Society views feminism as a bad think, it is thought of as if it was a group of ladies doing their hair or fixing their nails. Society has a wrong concept of this word. Human rights are not the same as women rights. Human rights are our rights in general for both men and women. It is sad to know that women don’t have the same rights as men. Just like men women are also human; they have the same need to drink water just like men do. Gender is no difference when it comes to humanity. These three concepts are very similar; feminism is related to both human and women rights. Why is feminism rejected and women rights aren’t? They mean the same, but I guess you can’t change society’s ways of seeing these things.
ReplyDeleteWhat these three terms mean too me!
ReplyDelete“Women’s rights”: a political right for women to be as equal as men.
“Human rights”: The basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.
“Feminism”: Social equality of the sexes.
The term I believe is the most meaningful out of those three is “Human’s Rights”. I chose that turn because human’s right refers to both sexes, meaning both sexes should have equal rights. Although the two different sexes have a different structure on their bodies both of their bodies have different functions. Why is it that women have been seen as the weaker person in the relationship or leadership, they are the strongest, no men can take the pain that a woman gets before giving birth! Are society has just been manipulated by their culture or religion on how to treat women! We are both humans no one is bigger than the other; both genders can create the same solution. So therefore that’s why I believe that humans rights should be used rather than the other two because feminism to be refers to just girls being weak , Which we aren’t we can do anything a man can do and sometimes even better. In addition women’s rights are seen as a political movement that happened for women to vote or have a saying or be in leadership. All humans created should have equal rights! Let’s make the change and lets all be equal, because there is still some cultures that put women down and don’t let contribute in any decision making conversations. Human – both genders =equality.
All three of these labels to me represent a common goal to gain equality and more rights for women. Some people however may see the term feminism and may not think of it as women’s rights; they however may see the word representing weakness because men are generally taught to me manly and not feminine. Feminism in many cultures is seen as weakness and that is why many people prefer using the terms “human rights” or “women’s rights” because these terms are not seen as something referring to weakness but are widely seen as a very important and urgent topic that is very serious. That is why I think that these terms are generally used more when it comes to the movement of women’s rights.
ReplyDeleteAll these three labels represent the same thing which is women's rights to get achieved as in giving them equal rights. When people refer women as feminism it can be offensive because women don't recall calling man by the term "males " because they might have a higher ranking or power that makes them more of superior than women. When people refer as the term human rights it has more of the meaning of all the people who live in this planet which it has a equal meaning to men and women. The people don't yet realize what women have gone through to a least get some rights of their own but yet they are not fully complete. They might have respect for all of the things they had done to accomplish what they really want the most Which is human rights yes human rights which all the people deserve .
ReplyDeleteTranqui