What is a feminist? When you look up the definition, the simple Google one comes up. “A feminist is an advocate of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.” What does it mean to be equal though? What do women really want? Do they want independence or to be treated like a queen? What do men think of feminism and chivalry? And is chivalry dead?
What does it mean to be equal to the people at Fargo North? Freshman Oriana Hill said, “What it means to me is that if a guy plans the date and pays for the date then the woman should get ready all nice and be prepared. It’s a compromise– we are supposed to meet in the middle.” But for others, they have different views. Sophomore Signe Nagle said, “Feminism means to me that we should have equality for everyone. And it’s not just equality for cis women, it’s for everyone.”
Some guys think that feminism has changed a little too much. A random guy in the library said, “I think there is modern feminism and [an] older feminism. I agree more with older feminism, I think it’s a great idea. I think modern feminists have taken it too far. I think the thing has gone from ‘women are equal’ to ‘men are bad.’ I think it has changed from a way to benefit women in society to a way to downgrade men in society.”
What do women want to be treated as equal? Bestcolleges.com simply put it as “Creating equal opportunities and new freedom for women.” Freshman Ella Vanlaningham said, “Being a feminist means to me that we should strive for equality in young women and men in multiple ways.”
Some people think communication is just the way to go. Nagle said, “men picking up the bill can be demanding sometimes. If you know the person well you should have that conversation before, […] but in my opinion splitting the bill is the way to go.” Another random guy in the library said, “I support feminism, the idea of equality is the ideal metric that we should be working towards.”
Should chivalry be dead? Chivalry is a practice of gracious courtesy and high-minded consideration towards women in particular. According to Meto 73 % of women think that chivalry is dead. Freshman Brady Demers said, “I think that chivalry should be more alive than ever, I think that people think that being a gentleman is bad is crazy. I think that chivalry is a way to show affection and show that I care.” Demers also said, “I like the 50 Cent quote. Whoever asks the person on the date should pay for the date, but personally I would always pay.” Devan Winnegge said, “If you want, yeah people are different, I normally don’t do the average things.”
Math teacher Jace Duffield said, “I think chivalry to me is just showing respect and decency to your partner. I think that traditionally it’s perceived at male and female but I think it’s just showing respect.” Scott Kittle, the woodworking teacher, said, “I remember I was on a trip with my buddy to California and an elderly couple got on the bus, and we gave our spots to them and they said ‘around here chivalry is dead.’ But I didn’t even look at it like that, I looked at it as common courtesy.”
Feminism is a delicate subject in today’s society but mainly the people at North. They believe in kindness and just being fair to everyone. This can be shown in many ways, but if you take anything from this article, hopefully you will learn to respect people and treat them equally no matter what you believe in.