A feminist resignation letter.

‘A feminist is a person who believes in the power in a woman as much they believe the power in anybody else.’ Zendaya

‘People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.‘ Rebbeca West.

For the longest time, I have been recognized as a feminist and I have also recognized myself as a feminist.

I believed in the economic and social recognition of women. I believed in them being given the full amount of respect that their counterparts get in every aspect of life.

I believed that women are oppressed. I believed that women have the right to speak, be heard, and have their ideas vetted by society in the way are for men.

I still do.

I share the same vision of Gloria Steinman that ‘A gender-equal society would be one that the word gender does not exist but rather everyone is free to be themselves.’

This distinct narrative has been to me fully diluted and has led to the demonizing of genders which is what I like to call gender wars.

When I first said I am a feminist I had the idea that I was doing it for that girl who was cramped up somewhere going to a foreign land to be sold into prostitution. I had this innocent idea that feminists were for all women and not just themselves. I wanted to speak up for the countless women raped India, killed in Africa, with their only crime being their gender.

I wanted to bring to surface the gender pay gaps that overruled the value of, and highlighted women as unworthy and too incompetent to receive what a man gets doing the same job. I truly believed that feminism was to make the world a safer place for everyone. Not just women but men too.

I didn’t think it was supposed to create a wedge between people. Whether man, woman, and sadly even amongst women

My biggest feminist role model is/was Chimamanda Ngozi. I spent countless hours reading her books and admittedly became a May Belief Philosopher myself. I quickly created feminism that was built on her perspective and abandoned the principles that made me want to become a feminist in the first place; to speak for those that are not given a voice.

Feminism became painted as something to be centered around man-hating and belittling of others. It became less of a mandatory cause but a luxurious sport. It perpetuated and engineered a new kind of woman, one expected by a new society and not an independent individual with the right of choice.

I once scrolled through a famous woman rights advocate who was perceived by society to be feminist because of her views. She, met a fate similar to the many others that aligned with the feminist philosophy. She was crucified.

That box that women have been trying to break out of has been replaced by one that is newer, shinier, but exactly the same. Old wine new wineskins, and by the bondage has been created by a newfound feminism, women no longer have a voice that isn’t regulated or crucified by anti-feminist or feminist. I refuse to live that way. In constant fear of what or who is going to be affected by what I say about both women and men. Starting from even the smallest grievances, for example, uttering that I love men, two notions may be derived. Either I hate women or I am a slut.

Being feminist shouldn’t remove your right to choose. You still have a right to denounce man hate when you feel it’s wrong. You still have a right to speak up against self-objectification when you see the terrible outcomes of it. Feminism shouldn’t be an excuse for women or men to perpetuate anger, hate, abuse, and push selfish ideas.

So I write my feminist resignation letter, albeit with a heavy heart. I don’t want to call myself a feminist only because I fear that when I choose to disagree with something contrary to the society of a progressive feminist, I will be called out or cancelled.

No person has the right to infringe on the rights of the other. No one is allowed to take away the choice one has in making their own independent decisions. Hence, I resign from this new wave of feminism that creates a choking environment that limits the woman it claims to protect. The environment that engineers this “new” kind of woman as if the old one was flawed. The environment that removing one’s right to choose.

I wish for feminists that celebrate all kinds of women and their independent decisions for their lives. Let our feminism not be hypocritical and self-centered.

Let us stop becoming the society that oppressed us.

For we are unstoppable in our uniqueness.