This post was originally written in the summer of 2017. I have no idea why I never published it but here ya go. I’m also not sure who or what pissed me off enough to write this, but that is neither here nor there. Enjoy this throwback rant about feminism and gender equality.
–Dr. Bri aka Dr. Painia bka as Doctor of Sociology and Loveeeeeeee; October 2018
I am a feminist.
Black feminist if we’re getting specific.
I’ve written several pieces inspired by this part of my identity and I’m LITERALLY writing my dissertation on it so it’s safe to say I’m well-versed in the topic and many of its practical implications and applications.
My definition of feminism and what it looks like on a micro- and macro-scale is subjective and being honest a lot of my interaction with and about feminism has evolved as I have evolved but one thing that has not changed about my politic is what I stand for. One point specifically is that my feminism (the black snazzy politic that it is) fights for the rights and equality of women AND men.
Yes, I fight for the rights of men whilst fighting for the rights of women…at the same time. *gasp* So in that fight for equality I cannot overlook certain gender injustices just because they’re happening to men. The fact that men overwhelmingly receive harsher punishments for the same crime than their women counterpart is wrong. Flat out, it’s wrong. There’s no if’s, and’s or but’s, it’s an injustice.
It’s also possible for women to physically, emotionally, and/or mentally abuse and manipulate men. It’s a thing, it happens fairly often, it’s wrong. You can’t stand against domestic violence and have not nary a thing to say when the gender roles are reversed or when it’s not a heterosexual couple. Abuse is abuse.
The banner of feminism should not be an excuse to cozy up and endorse double standards that you would damn near break your thumbs ranting against on twitter if the
victims were women. Feminism is about gender equality and even more importantly fairness. It’s been too often that I’ve come across people who have a selective outrage when it comes to things that are outside of the lived experience of a straight woman. If you’re carrying the feminist torch you gotta be ready to speak up for your LGBT sistren and brethren, your male brothers out in the struggle, and everything in between.
For example, we’re all pissed that recently a black cop killed a white woman and that means he’ll probably never see the light of day again when an almost uncountable amount of white officers have frolicked their way around prison or real-world consequences for killing unarmed black people. Are we pissed he’s going to jail? No, lock his trigger-happy behind up! But we are pissed that the 50-leven, umpteen white cops, who were killing black people in the street like they were playing Duck Hunt, are still out here free to potentially kill somebody else. Why are we pissed about that? Because it’s unfair and unjust (also having killers run free in the street is just a disturbing feeling, know what I mean?).
In that same way, you cannot turn a blind eye to a woman smacking, hopping, and overall beating a man in public, private or whatever and claim you feel a way about men putting their hands on women. How sway? 
It is undeniably true that we live in a society that does not give two craps about women, their needs, their feelings, their access to health care, or their general will to be an autonomous human being. That being said, we can’t let those facts cloud our ability to call a spade a spade. If a woman is outchea beating her children, terrorizing her partner or engaging in any number of unsavory behaviors I’m calling her what she is…a terrible person…the same thing I’d call a man doing the same thing.
It would do us all some good to evaluate what our politics and our beliefs actually mean and look like in practice cuz it’s all fine and dandy to carry your homemade poster at the Women’s March but if you ain’t standing up for Jack the way you’re standing up for Jill or if you ain’t fighting for the trans girls and gals the way you are for your big homie Chanel then you might wanna check your politic a bit.
Just saying.
Greetings and Blessings,
Briizy Bri
B.Alexandra's Cosmos 