Ten days until the UK General Election.
I, being the Guardian-reading, peace-loving, power-to-the-people pacifistic feminist that I am, shall be voting for the Liberal Democrats when the time comes. My boyfriend, on the other hand, has still not decided. I feel that if he didn’t happen to be in a relationship with me, then he probably wouldn’t bother to vote at all. And who could blame him? Unless you already have specific beliefs and opinions about the world we live in, which of the course the word ‘feminist’ implies, it is all too easy to get washed away in the Great Wave Of Apathy which is already drowning a large chunk of the youth population.
So, I ask myself why. Why is it that generations of people are now coming of age and shrugging their shoulders at the issues that face them?
You know, I hate to point my finger at the education system all the time, but I remember just ONE lesson at school where politics was addressed. In this lesson, a class of 15 year olds proved their complete ignorance (yack, nasty word - but, hell, the right one) over what the was happening outside of their music-movies-macdonalds world. One girl thought that John freaking Major was Prime Minister, and many others did not have a clue. And it was clearly the girls who were the most clueless.
How depressing, I thought. How are we supposed to fight for women’s rights shoulder-by-shoulder, when most females do not have a clue and do not care anyway? But, I knew this was not true, since I knew that most of my own friends were fairly clued up.
The ugly truth is this: A fifteen year old girl is not going to look very attractive if she appears to have an opinion. Or so they believe.
I’m eighteen. It wasn’t that long ago that I was fifteen (although it feels a lifetime away), and so I too knew that it was best to keep my mouth shut. Even though at home I was political, opinionated and sharp, at school the fear of embarrassment kept my lips tightly locked. Thankfully, that left me as I left school at sixteen and I’ve been a lot more vocal over my opinions in college, but I can’t help but feel that I helped the spread of apathy by remaining quiet during those so-called formative years. Had I spoken out, shown that girls have opinions and are fully aware of current affairs, perhaps, just maybe, I could have altered the view of at least one person.
It’s all could-haves, should-haves now though. It’s a waste of time looking back with regret. Thankfully I no longer think “I’ll just keep quiet even though I am burning to shout, otherwise so-and-so-with-the-nice-hair won’t fancy me at all.” Although, I know that plenty of girls and young women my own age and even older still think like this. Little do they know, that so-and-so-with-the-nice-hair may even find her opinions attractive and thus find her vivacious and interesting. And if he doesn’t then he’s a pig who doesn’t deserve her.
Instead of becoming frustrated, we as feminists have to continue voicing our opinions and refusing to hide in the dark, so that we encourage other women (and even men) to follow. The epidemic of political apathy has to end and, by openly discussing issues in social situations, just maybe it finally will.
