Feminism............??

What or who is a feminist? I have never been able to find out what feminism is. Is it speaking your mind in public being a woman? Is it not being a doormat and a pushover? Is it respecting women as human beings and not chattels and commodity in the hands of men? I don't know. Feminism conjures in my mind rough hewn images of blood-thirsty virgin-widows roaming the nether dark forests waiting for a man to clutch and devour! Or women, big and large, with hoarse voices and even hoarser souls that frequent our professional world suspiciously eyeing every man, always being sexually harassed (in their imagination) by men who want their bodies, their company, and their jobs. Are feminists the foul-mouthed, hard talking, foaming at the mouth women who are self-appointed defender of women's rights in Pakistan and frequent the TV channels fuming at men and all things manly.

What is a feminist then if not the amazonian, vampire that knoll the alarms of fear in my heart! If the above women are feminists then I'd rather be a doormat. I don't want to be a 'bad man' to fight for my rights as a woman, in fact I resent the idea of fighting for my rights, I believe so far into the 21st century, we women ought to be smarter, instead of 'fighting' we should assume in our stance all those basic human-traits (rights) that a man has or assumes as he grows older. He doesn't ask for these privileges, they are his, he assumes them and takes them and some more, whatever comes his way. Why cannot we do that as well?

Most of the time women fall into the stereotypes of the society, intelligent woman deliberately taking up the role of the innocent novice, acting lost and stupid because it is drilled in our minds that men do not go for 'smart' women. That may be true, because as it is men tend to have very fragile egos and even delicate personalities, they have a hard time dealing with women who are intelligent and think for themselves. But, this does not mean, that women take the cudgel to the man, and always try to prove something or the other.

How do then assert our needs, our beings, our thoughts and our rights in a society that is bound to keep us cramped and tied down? Surely not by becoming monstrosities of nature, definitely not by baying at the sight of a man ready to flay and eat him alive. Such images evoke a sense of the animal, and instead of raising the level and view of women in society reduces them to wild-beasts that need more restrain and firm hold lest they destroy the fabric of society itself!

I am my own person, and I will do what I think right, I will respect my male relatives/friends and hark their advice, I will not hate every man I see (though at times it would take the strength of a Medusa) and I will respect all genders on the basis of their actions, and their motives and not what place society endows them.

If that makes me a Feminist, so be it!