The Feminist Manefesto

Jasmine-Arabella
3 min readJan 1, 2021
Photo by roya ann miller on Unsplash

There have been feminist movements since Roman times, if not before. There are currently hundreds of feminist organizations world wide. Yet in all that there is no one central authority. There is no absolute Feminist Manefesto that governs all. Yet so many seem to think they are it’s author and guardian.

I have seen many in various groups make absolute statments about who is and is not a feminist, or what it is or isn’t. In many cases these comments are peppered with insults and rude language toward other women. Other women who consider themselves feminists too.

This is sad and so unproductive. We have plenty of enemies, we have millennia of them, we don’t need to be turning on each other. Any one who will stand by our side in even the smallest of things is an ally.

I think we would all agree that no where in this world of ours is there a single country or city were we would say feminism is done. That it has totally completed its mission. Even in countries where the vote was won decades ago there is still much to do. And in other places women are still fighting for more basic rights; respect, access to schools, etc. Just because one woman’s fight is at a different level than yours doesn’t make her any less a feminist. It doesn’t make her cause any less important.

It has been my observation for many years that there are those that can see beyond themselves and those that can not. Some will easily say I would never… (get a tatoo, have an abortion, watch porn, etc.), but I accept that others do. But then there are those that can not see beyond themselves, who search for excuses to say that ..(fill in the blank).. is wrong, simply because they would not do so. This lack of acceptance saddens me.

I am a lesbian and within the queer community you hear a lot about acceptance. Most in that others should accept us. But I feel within both the queer community and within the feminist movement there is a need for internal acceptance. I think there is a need to go beyond ourselves and accept others.

You may not see or define feminism the same way I do. Very likely your focus and involvement is some what different than mine. But that doesn’t make you any less my sister. We are still fighting the same over all battle to bring equality to all women.

I have spent quite a bit of my social media time in 2020 debating and even arguing with other women whose opinion I disagreed with. One of my goals for 2021 and onward is to stop that.

Maybe you have a belief I strongly disagree with, that is fine we all have our opinions. After all isn’t a big part of being a feminist fighting for the right for every woman to be her own woman to be an individual? I feel diversity makes us strong as long as we have enough acceptance to not let it rip us apart. There are ways to politely state one’s opinion and move on. Instead of focusing on what we disagree about, let’s focus on what we have in common. Let’s build each other up as we build a better world for all women.

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Jasmine-Arabella

I am a questioner, not out of doubt, but in a quest to learn and grow. I am for ‘liberty and justice’ for ALL. I am for equality for ALL.