Cultural Feminism

In a world where women’s rights continue to rise, feminists are losing their platform. The fight for gender equality had lost depth with this rise and positive focus on feminism has risen with it. This positive focus on the female mind, body and spirit, is known as cultural feminism.

Cultural feminism is the biological theory of essential differences between men and women. Primary focus is on the positive aspects of womanhood—the things that make women wonderful and essential as nature intended. It is not about empowerment nor is it about battling sexes and gender discrimination. Cultural feminism focuses on personalities not chosen but biologically essential to females.

In some aspects, cultural feminists believe women to be more evolved than men. The ability to nurture is one of the aspects celebrated by them. The ability to love is also seen as a feminine quality, which isn’t to say that men do not also have this ability, but that women are wired to love. Cultural feminism also celebrates nonviolence and emotional intelligence.  

The word “feminism” has the ability to evoke many emotions. Like many categorized individuals, feminists come with their own stereotypes. They can be seen as power-driven women, man-haters, over-emphatic activists of “sisterhood”. However, cultural feminists aim to steer clear of blaming protests of social degradation. To be a cultural feminist means to celebrate all things given to and produced by women.

It might seem pathetic to fight for feminine rights in modern times because, in most parts of the world, feminists have come a long way. Women are no longer viewed as kitchen-slaves, child-bearing slaves or maids. However, it is the theory of cultural feminism that these traits—cooking, cleaning, motherhood, caring, loving, and being emotionally in tune—are best performed by women. In the eyes of a cultural feminist, these attributes are positive and necessary. In the eyes of other feminists, these traits are seen as degrading marks passed on by society, stereotyping women as slaves who are useless otherwise. There is a pattern to see here that separates cultural feminists from others—positivity versus negativity in their roles as women.  

Whereas other feminists are bent on arguing and fighting for equal rights, claiming no difference between them and men, cultural feminists choose to celebrate these differences. These are the things that make them women—that make them essential to humanity, useful, wonderful and uniquely female.