On the Subject of Women's Rights (And Rights in General Really)

To deny someone else rights just because your particular group hasn't gained them fully means we'll never accomplish anything or get anywhere.

We fight tooth and nail for the smallest of privileges and hold on to them with everything we have and we don't stop fighting because someone else lack the same privilege. We fight the battles we can, but we can't fight every battle. Your life will be a choice of the fights you want to make. That does not make another fight less valid, or yours more so. It is just the one you've chosen to fight. Just because someone has chosen something different doesn't invalidate your cause. It is just not the fight that particular person has decided is most important to them.

The privileges we gain are often started by referencing another group and saying "hey, look at what they have, we want that".

Fighting for what you need brings change.

Don't stop fighting because you can only get yourself out of the gutter. Get out, save yourself, and then when you have the means, help those you left behind: the neighbours who suffered beside you. Sure, it might seem selfish at first, but it's hard to fight from a gutter. Power is important. I'm sorry. It's a harsh truth, but it's a truth. It is hard to fight from a gutter and if you do so when you could be fighting from the streets, you only delay the problem, not stop it. To stop a problem, you need power. To get power, you need to save yourself. If you can save yourself, then do it. You'll be a lot more helpful when you fight from a point of stability.

However, do not invalidate someone else's cause. My cause is women's rights and queer rights. Because I am a woman, and I am queer. But I admit that men have problems as well. However, women are raped at a higher percentage (3 in 5). However, women have more support groups. However, the chance of victim blaming is higher than the rape percentage. However, men's rape cases are very often dismissed.

HOWEVER, I'm not allowed to fight this because men's rape isn't fully recognized either? No, men's rape should be recognized and helped, but do not try to deny me my cause to validate yours. Both our causes are valid and important. By degrading mine to raise up yours, you are only harming human rights as a whole.

Everyone's rights are equally as important. But by labelling myself a feminist, I do not label myself as a misandrist.

If we were to compare everyone's problems with everyone else's problems we wouldn't get anything done. You don't starve yourself because children in third world countries starve do you? Then don't try to starve my cause just because yours isn't completed yet.

Because mine is just beginning. And we need all the help we can get.

Think of what we could accomplish if we just supported one another, instead of piling up figurative bodies of causes just so we can step on them and have ours reach a half inch higher in the view of the world.