Is Feminism Still Necessary?

           Feminism is rooted, in America, at a time when women could not vote, achieve a higher education or even go out into the workforce, let alone receive equal pay. Women were seen as second class citizens. Back then, advocacy for equal rights was badly needed. Fast forward to today and you can see that feminism has made huge strives, giving us women's suffrage, the right to a higher education, and reduced the pay gap greatly. That being said, I do believe that feminism still has a role in the United States. Women are still overwhelmingly the majority victims of domestic abuse. The idea that women should play the traditional gender role of being a homemaker and not have the option to go a different path is still alive and well in the minds of a lot of people around the world. There is definitely a need to fight back against those gender norm stereotypes. It goes without saying that women still experience sexism today. However, it seems as though feminism has taken a sharp turn into something that is a lot different than the original ideology. I've gotten the impression that many feminists have started to look for things to nitpick on that have nothing to do with the core messages of feminism.
       Feminism has taken many different forms these days. Some branches of the feminist movement have wondered off into the weeds, criticizing video games, for example, for the "sexualization" of women. As someone who has played video games with such characters in them, I can't emphasize enough as to how much I just do not care. It had never even crossed my mind. I say that to ask this question: How are sexy women in video games contributing to the oppression of women? Wouldn't it be a better use of your time, energy and platform to focus on issues that actually do affect oppressed women? If anything, the sheer silliness of the non-issues that some feminists have chosen to focus on has turned a lot of people away from feminism, which is frustrating to me. In my mind, feminism is a basic humanistic position. If you were to ask most people in the United States whether or not they think that women should have equality in the workplace and under the law, most of them would say, "Yes, of course."  That is the definition of feminism. In the western world, we have come a long way in terms of equality for women. As one of the leading nations in the world, we need to set an example for other countries that are in dire need of feminism. In theocracies such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, feminism still has a big role to play. As someone who cares greatly about equality, I feel that it's crucial that we get back to the core of the feminist message, not just for the equality of women in the United States, but for the equality of women around the world as well.
        There is still a lot of work to be done in regards to feminism in many countries around the world. In a lot of Muslim countries, women are required to wear a Hijab. In Saudi Arabia, women can't even drive, and they have to have male guardians wherever they go. That is just ludicrous! Women are literally treated like property. It reminds me of somebody taking their dog out for its daily walk. I can absolutely see people scoffing at the idea of feminism when we're over here "advocating" for less sexy women in video games, while the women of Saudi Arabia are treated like pets. The amount of oppression that women in theocratic governments have to endure is just unthinkable. Here in the western world, women are nowhere near that amount of oppression.
    Of course the fight for equality is still needed, but in some ways, the feminist movement has become authoritarian, which is the antitheses of what feminism was originally founded on. Feminism is not a radical idea. We must stop making a mockery of it by going after unimportant issues. If we care about making real change, we need people on our side, and this ridiculous amount of nitpicking alienates people from the feminist movement. We have to remember the roots of feminism, recognize how far we've come, and adjust our views accordingly.