If you've ever had to explain why feminism isn't called "humanism" (or if you're a little confused yourself), vlogger Steve Shives is here to sum up the reasons in under five minutes.
Shives, a vlogger for YouTube channel The Breakfast Club, uses an LA metro sign that his friend posted to Facebook which asks riders to "respect our women passengers" by refraining from staring, masturbating, following women and engaging in any unwanted touching, to make an important point about feminism.
When a Facebook commenter asks why the sign says to respect women passengers and not all passengers, Shives uses this exchange as a jumping off point, comparing the commenter's question to the similar humanist vs. feminist debate.
"The reason why it’s called feminism while advocating for gender equality is because females are the gender that are the underprivileged, underserved gender," Shives says in his video response. "You attain gender equality by advocating for the rights of the underprivileged gender."
While Shives points out that it's not only men (and certainly not all men) who openly masturbate on the subway or make passengers feel unsafe, it's generally men doing these things to women. "That is the nature of the problem that the sign is meant to address," he says.
Shives draws parallels between the feminist movement and the gay rights movement, reminding us that the we don't fight for the equality of gay people because "we think gay people deserve to be better than straight people," but because "gay people are in the inferior position and we want to raise them up to equality. That's how you attain equality," Shives says.
Exactly.
H/T WifeyTV