"We Can Do It!", also called "Rosie the Riveter" after the iconic figure of a strong female war production worker (1942-1945) lithograph poster by J. Howard Miller. Original public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.

Will feminists work on oil wells? That’s not the right question!

Would a woman, specially a feminist woman, work on an oil well? I don’t know. The Oxford dictionary defines feminism as “the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.” Which is very cool. If feminism means that, I’m a feminist.

But, then, you hear so many weird reasons that feminism sucks or feminists are anti-men. Are they though? I mean the definition of feminism is pretty clear. A feminist fights for equal rights for men and women. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Then they come. Those dumb idiots who step further than the general agenda and try to sabotage a movement so they can gain some popularity or satisfy their need to be acknowledged. Some become anti-men or suggest crazy things. I’ve seen those who suggest that a woman should not limit herself to her husband or unborn babies are parasites. Best thing to do with them is to ignore them and worst thing to do is to dismiss the whole feminist movement because some crazy people are speaking their crazy minds.

Then comes the idiot men who want to oppose this craziness with more madness. Like they try to give you idiotic reasons to discredit the feminist movement. They give you foolish reasons such as feminists only want to work in high-paying jobs or they won’t work as a sweeper and if they don’t find a good job, they would rely on their husband.

Well who wouldn’t? Are men different in this matter? Won’t you protest if a high-paying job wasn’t available to you because of your sex? If you could rely on someone in life instead of becoming a sweeper, you would turn that down?

My friend, the whole agenda of feminism is that if a woman wants to become a sweeper, or mine worker, or CEO, she should be able to. If a woman wants to become a construction worker, she shouldn’t be rejected because it’s a man’s work. It’s that simple. It’s that easy.

It’s all about opportunity and availability. It’s not that the feminist movement wants to force you to quit your job and place a woman there, it’s that if a woman has the same abilities as you, and wants to work the same job as you, she should be able to. It doesn’t mean that you’ll get fired, it means that a woman should be able to compete with you on the basis of her abilities, not on the basis of her or your sex.

It’s not fair that a man gets a job because of his sex, while there’s a woman more skilled than that man for the same work. And it’s not fair that a man gets paid more than a woman, or gets treated better than a woman, because of his sex. I’m not saying that men are getting more, I find no evidence of that, I’m just saying that the feminist movement is about that.

It’s about opportunity. No, I don’t think a woman wants to work as a repairer on a telecommunication tower at high altitudes, but if she wants to, she should be able to, if she has the skills. If she doesn’t want to, she’s free not to work that job. Exactly how it should be for men. It’s about equality. Will a woman work on an oil well? I don’t know. But feminism is about whether she should be able to or not. If she doesn’t want to, that doesn’t discredit the movement. It’s really easy to understand.

Men and women are different. Biologically, we’re not the same. That biologic difference has been a reason to treat them differently. Women had a role in society and men’s role were something else. Now that women are behaving differently and are capable of doing a lot of what historically were men’s job, we should remove those behaviors and social rules from our lives and treat everybody with equality and justice.

We should treat everybody based on their skills and abilities and disregard their genders. The feminist movement tries to put this equality and justice in place. It doesn’t want to remove men from power, it just wants to make room for women who are able to do the same job.