Feminism. Who's a feminist?? Me? You?? Who?

There used to be this time where being a feminist was cool. Maybe it was only when I was surrounded by feminists in my "something something Women's Literature/History" classes. When you're in this group of unshaved women, "you go girl!" is usually a phrase that will get you covered in spit from the angry protests foaming out of these feminists' mouths.

Okay, I'm being unkind. Let me put it this way, there are people who are feminists because back in the day that the Lilith Fair was in, it was cool to be one. And there are people who are feminists because their circumstances mold their beliefs.

We live in a phallocentric world. It's good to be a man and not so good to be a woman. But in some places, it's easy to forget this fact. The balance between men and women is such that one can live their lives without seeing the distinction, most of the time. Suffragettes have paved the way for women to stand as their own entity.

I come from an Asian background. Although the women's movement started in the 1800s, my culture refuses to acknowledge it happened. There is a distinct division of what a man is and what a woman is, besides anatomy. The man is the breadwinner and the woman is the housekeeper. I was raised this way, the next generation is being raised with this notion as well. Where's the progress?

I never saw myself as a staunch feminist but when I came to live in Malaysia after a long stay in the States, I began to find the (shaved) feminist in me. Women here are so used to their cage they don't see the bars. They don't see what's outside those bars. They are content with the contents in the cage. Or should I say kitchen? The women who manage to get out of the kitchen find themselves in a new cage--the factory or a secretarial position. Yes, women are in the worforce. They are out there earning a living, or trying to earn a living with their small wages, but that's the general picture. Look closely, the higher positions are women-free.

Much is not expected out of me career wise because I'm a woman. I can't get a goddamn Malaysian publisher to publish me because I'm a woman writing outside her means. I'm expected to cook and do all the household chores when my brother is not expected to lift a finger to help. I can't walk alone after dark because I'm a girl that can't protect herself. Restriction after restriction. Expectation after expectation. Or should I say lack of expectation? It's a frustrating world to be thought as the weaker species.

So, YES! I'm a feminist. Women have equal rights to men. Just because we have boobs and a vagina doesn't mean that we can succeed in the same things that a penis can. Liberate the woman out of her second standing! EQUALITY people. For the Malaysian women out there, start questioning your role as a daughter, wife and mother. Men have two hands like you, why is it so taboo for a man to be in the kitchen while the woman relaxes with a newspaper in the living room?