Is the Future Female?

I’ll be the first to say it: I’m an aspiring feminist. Believe me, no one hates the fact that I need to add aspiring into that sentence more than me - but it’s true. I don’t claim to be an expert on all of women’s issues, or to even truly understand the definition of feminism. But I am willing to study women's history to foster a greater understanding of what it means to be a feminist.

Therefore, when I saw “The Future is Female” t-shirts making a resurgence from their 1970s origins, I wanted to dig deeper. What I found out was that these four little words are actually causing major problems for the feminist movement.

"The Future is Female."

Empowering? Yes. A good for a feminist slogan? Definitely not. Though each individual has their own definition as to what feminism is, very few actually mean it to be helping women through oppressing or erasing men. Unfortunately, this future is the one being commonly portrayed. “The Future is Female” takes a virtually nonexistent sect of feminism and makes it into the spokesperson. This provides anti-feminists with more ammunition for attacking this movement. Furthermore, it makes it more difficult to raise the next generation of young men to become feminists. Why would boys want to support a movement that would erase them from the future?

Saying the “future is female” simply implies another gender imbalance, only this time in favor of females. However, the majority of feminists are not anti-male but anti-male privilege. Their stereotype as male hating lesbians is a prejudice they’ve been trying very hard to shake and this fashion trend isn’t helping.

Not only does “The Future is Female” exclude men from whatever future feminists supposedly have planned, but it also excludes all the people who do not conform to a gender binary system. Are trans people also not allowed to be empowered in whatever future the “radical” feminists have in store? Of course not, but that’s the way this slogan is making it seem.

Therefore, we should all think twice before putting on this t-shirt just to feel like the feminists we want to be. Instead of regurgitating out popularly held beliefs, think about what your slogans actually mean. The future is everyone, so we may as well treat each other with respect in the present.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/montclair-diplomats/the-misconception-about-f_b_9959932.html

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444699/future-female-problematic-feminist-slogan