#BestFather #FirstFeministPresident #DoubleStandards #GlassCeiling #Intersectionality #UseYourVoice #FathersForDaughters #FeministDads #ObamaDaughters #MichelleObama
Former President Barack Obama was America’s first openly self-identified feminist. Last year, Obama published an essay for Glamour magazine explaining why he’s a feminist and why feminism is just as important for men as it is for women. It is incredibly shocking that it took this long for a president to openly admit he is a feminist and I wish more presidents would emphasize the importance of women's rights. Someone with such influence and power could use it for so much positive reform, especially with the help of the First Lady. This is an incredibly important topic because there is a stigma that only gay men or women can be feminists. People often mistake the idea of feminism as women's rights only when it actually means equality for men and women. If both men and women unite to accomplish equality for women, more progress will be made.
Obama stated that men have the responsibility to fight against sexism as well as women do. He reminds men that are fathers that their daughters need their dads to be feminists. Fathers need to lead an example to their daughters of what treatment they should accept from other men in their life. Fathers need to show their daughters their worth as a child so they know they are worthy later in life. If fathers do this, women will allow themselves to be loved by good men opposed to men who are abusive and mistreat them. Men also need to create positive influences within relationships with their daughters so they know how to create equal relationships with spouses and boyfriends. Obama mentions that his life was shaped by his daughters, wife, mother, and grandmother as well. Obama was raised by a single mom, who spent much of her career working to empower women in developing countries. His grandmother, who helped raise him, worked her way up at a bank only to hit a glass ceiling. This means that as a woman, she was discriminated against within her job and could never get promoted as high as a man did. Therefore, Obama saw the struggles of women first hand and strives to make a change in the future for all women.
Obama also mentions the harsh double standards and stereotypes women unfrontuately face within society. Obama discusses how the media only criticized Michelle for anything related to the kids. Barack was never criticized because men are not stereotyped as the primary caretaker of the children, especially as the president. However, both Barack and Michelle shaped the way their daughters turned out, not just one or the other. Next, Obama said we need to change the double standard by not congratulating men for changing a diaper, stigmatizing full-time dads, or penalizing working mothers. We need to stop the idea that women who are confident, competitive, and ambitious in the workplace are bossy and aggressive. Michelle always had to monitor herself to make sure she did not come across as intimidating as an intelligent, "aggressive," assertive black woman. Double standards need to end in order for women to gain equal pay and equal treatment within the workplace and within society.
Obama also wants his daughters to feel confident in themselves and not succumb to stereotypes or unrealistic beauty and body standards of society among women. Obama said that fathers of young girls have to be more aware of how gender stereotypes impact them. Women are under so much pressure to look, behave, and think in a certain acceptable way or else there are social consequences. He wants to empower his daughters to climb the highest fields of whatever they are passionate about and focus on their intelligence, not just beauty. He does not want his daughters to be forced or molded to take certain paths or identities by society. He wants his daughters to pursue whatever they want, whether it is a dominated field or not. He does not want stereotypes to limit anyone in their gender, race, sexuality and wants everyone to be able to be their unique selves. Obama ends his essay by saying America is a place where every single child can make of her life what she will and we all need to unite to contribute and make this happen.
-Marisa Ward
Crockett, E. (2017, January 19). Read President Obama on why men need to be feminists too. Vox, Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2016/8/4/12375558/obama-first-feminist-president-legacy-malia-sasha-glamour-essay
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