• CON

    If she is being payed equally then she will be content....

    Feminism is not equality

    It's my pleasure to debate you. 1) Establishing the definition of feminism From Wiktionary {1} Noun feminism (countable and uncountable, plural feminisms) 1. (obsolete) The state of being feminine; femininity. [from 1851; less common after 1895] Q95; 2. A social theory or political movement which argues that legal and social restrictions on women must be removed in order to bring about equality of both sexes in all aspects of public and private life. From Encyclopedia Britannica {2} Feminism, the belief in the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes. Although largely originating in the West, feminism is manifested worldwide and is represented by various institutions committed to activity on behalf of women"s rights and interests. From Merriam Webster {3} Definition of feminism 1: the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes 2: organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests 2) Conclusions from definition As you can clearly see, equality is inherent to the definition of feminism. If someone violates the tenets of feminism, i.e., equality of sexes, it is not the definition of the word that is compromised, but merely the integrity as a feminist of the individual that violates it. A simple syllogism suffices to demonstrate this: Belief in God and Jesus Christ makes one Christian "Man A" believes in God and Jesus Christ "Man A" is a Christian And of course, the contrary holds true as well: Disbelief in God and Jesus Christ makes one non-Christian "Man B" doesn't believe in God "Man B" is not a Christian No one would argue that if a man who claims to be Christian denounces the existence of God, Christians no longer believe in God. That man simply stops being a Christian. This same logic will apply to feminism as well. Belief in the equality of sexes makes one feminist "Woman A" believes women are superior to men "Woman A" is not a feminist Therefore your premise is flawed, in that the conduct you described would not be the conduct of feminists. 3) Refutation of opponent's points Of the three points my opponent makes, none actually support his premise that feminism is not equality, as they are all sensationalist promulgations with no facts to support them. You claim some women hate all men and wish they were all dead. This is probably true, as there are many women in the world, and it's more likely than not that at least one of them feels this way. However, the same applies to men as well, and there is likely at least one man that wishes all women were dead. Neither of these points say anything about either group as a whole, as those individuals have no mandate to speak for those collective bodies, whether the body in question is man, woman, or feminism. The claim about the wage gape has no bearing on my argument. If a (female)feminist is being payed less for the same work as a man, she would no doubt be upset and wish to rectify the situation. If she is being payed equally then she will be content. As far as employment goes, women work in every profession mentioned by my opponent. I consider these three points I've made so far as self-evident, and believe they require no substantiation. Pro's testament that there are also female rapists is not salient to the discussion. It is also worth noting that the two sentences in conjunction in his second paragraph seem to imply that men are being raped by women in prisons. The is completely untrue, and the source used to support it is a study on men being raped by other men in prison. Of course in the U.S., the world leader in incarceration rates{4}, this couldn't possibly happen as prisons are gender segregated. The second source provided by my opponent is just a blog reflecting the opinions of one who is not an authority on the subject, and is not credible for sourcing. 4) Summary In summary I would like to leave a quote that bolsters my two avenues of argument (definition of feminism, poor sourcing and presentation from my opponent). "Feminism is an interesting word. It suffers from being an ""ism". First, people make the assumption that feminism is only for women. Second, people mistake feminism for an ideology, something you either believe in or not, and third, many people still view feminists as dogmatic or dangerous. The irony is that these stereotypes are exactly what anti-feminists have wanted us to believe, since the suffrage movement began in the 19th century. As I see it, true feminism is simply to stand up for equality. In the words of Gloria Steinem, "a feminist is anyone who recognises(sic) the equality and full humanity of women and men." Where does this come from you ask? It is an excerpt from an article titled "Equality isn't just a women's issue, it's a human one", written by Carlos Moedas. The interesting thing about this is that I am not the one who introduced this article to the debate. This is a direct excerpt from the article linked to by Pro's third source, which contradicts his own argument, and strongly supports mine. {1} https://en.wiktionary.org... {2} https://www.britannica.com... {3} https://www.merriam-webster.com... {4} https://en.wikipedia.org...