Last year in one of my classes, we discussed feminism in America. During the class discussion, a commercial was used as an example to show how society is degrading to women. The commercial was attempting to sell a cleaning product and it featured a woman using the product. The student presenting the commercial said the gender-role stereotyping was offensive. She believed that having a woman cleaning was completely opposite of the equality feminism strives to attain and, therefore, makes the whole commercial degrading to women.

I could not wrap my head around this. I didn’t take it offensively, and the people who did baffled me a bit. I tried to understand their reasoning: a woman cleaning reinforces the stereotype that cleaning is all women are capable of doing, and since the commercial shows a woman cleaning while using the product, the stereotype was still implied, so it’s insulting to women. 

My only question is, why do we have to look at the commercial through a defensive lens?

Why do we have to take it, read too much into it and twist it into something degrading? Why can’t it just be a woman cleaning her kitchen with the product? Because I would bet anything that there is in fact a woman cleaning her kitchen with said product, feeling empowered because of her other accomplishments. It was either they use a woman or a man in the commercial, so they chose a woman.

I want to be very clear here, I am not anti-feminist. I absolutely believe in gender equality. Women are just as capable as men.

I think the gap between genders is ridiculous and unnecessary. Yes, women should be paid as much as men; no, women are not incapable of running a company and should not be expected to fulfill culturally-prescribed gender roles. Just as men should not be expected to fulfill culturally-prescribed gender roles. I’m all for equality.

If anyone believes my interpretation of the commercial is anti-feminist, I’m sorry, but perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to look at why what I’m saying is so offensive. 

Society is just too sensitive. That commercial did not set out to degrade women; taking it and turning it into something so insulting is the start of what puts feminism on some people’s radar as harsh and negative.

A lot of anti-feminist movements in today’s society are fueled by the extreme ways feminists act, and the extreme stances feminists take on unrelated societal issues.

Recently, a social media movement called Women Against Feminism developed, where different women post selfies that show them holding a piece of paper stating why they are against feminism.

Many of the signs stated things such as, “I don’t need feminism, feminism promotes making men our enemies. Men aren’t our enemies.”

Feminism shouldn’t actually be viewed as promoting making men into enemies, though. Feminism is defined as “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.”

It’s the radical people, the people who do things like take a cleaning commercial and twist it into a statement about men’s domination over women, that give the impression that feminism is something much more negative than it is.

Feminism is about equality, not exerting female power over men. 

Of course there are exceptions, there is always going to be an extreme, radically-inclined feminist group. Just as there will always be another group at the opposite end of the spectrum, promoting patriarchy and stereotypical gender roles.

Feminism is good, in a healthy dose. I absolutely believe we are equal. Women deserve just as much as men. But it is important to remember that we deserve just as much as men, not more than.

The day when an advertisement for a cleaning product featuring a woman is seen as nothing more than an ad is the day of true equality.