What I Think HeForShe Is About

A while ago I shared a link to a talk given by Emma Watson on the UN Women HeForShe campaign. I mentioned that I hadn't thought about feminism in depth before because I hadn't really needed to. Following that line of thought a bit further, I think the other reason that I haven't researched feminism more is because, all too often in our current society, feminists are portrayed as women who think they don't need men. I don't believe this either. I believe we need both men and women, working together and supporting each other in order to allow all people to reach their full potential.

I think the key difference that separates this campaign from other movements is  that men are the target of this campaign. Throughout history, women's rights have been fought for primarily by women. These women have needed to appeal to men in order to be allowed to vote. To be allowed to study. For rights to own property. By bringing men on board, HeForShe are directly targeting the people who are able to drive this change the fastest. Because, let's face it, currently in this world, many leadership positions and positions of influence are positions held by men. I am of the opinion that if the people who hold positions of influence start changing their mindsets, so will those that admire the influencer also change their mindsets. Women can drive and campaign for equal rights as much as possible, but if we don't have both men and women on board, we will never be able to reach equality.

The HeForShe campaign really appeals to me. I like that, at it's essence, it's a campaign about equality. Equality for women and men. This is what makes the HeForShe campaign different. It's a campaign that is asking societies to stop treating women as objects and start treating them as people. It's asking that society allow men the freedom to express emotion without fear that this is seen as a weakness. It's a campaign that is asking that people show each other respect. This campaign is asking for people to change their mindsets. And changing mindsets is quite possibly the most difficult task of all...

Equality

If you're interested in finding out more about this campaign, you can go to heforshe.org and sign up. 

(I've done it. I even ticked that little box. If you don't know what box I'm talking about, go to the site and find out!)

There are so many other thoughts and aspects to this that I want to explore - if you don't want to miss any posts, you can lik my facebook page or follow me on Bloglovin.