Gender Biased Activism

When talking and reading about the Greenbelt movement in Kenya, I saw some ways in which this activism correlated with the activism coming from the students from the Parkland shooting. In the Greenbelt movement and the Parkland student’s group, there is a female figurehead that represents the movement, the figures being Wangari Maathai and Emma Gonzales. Because these activism groups are both being led by women, these groups are also facing opposition from a gendered perspective. Wangari was often called out for not being a submissive or “true” African woman because she spoke her opinions loudly and did not back down from government pressure. When Emma Gonzales speaks, she is faced with nasty comments about her appearance and what a normal teenage girl should look like. She is also harassed over her sexuality and has faced opposition from government officials. Another thing that correlates these two forms of activism is that they both deal with an issue that affects every gender and has a major impact on the environment, whether it be the social or physical environment they are in. Planting trees is not purely a feminist issue and neither is gun control, but both women are working to make sure that their homes are not destroyed and are willing to face gender and sexually based harassment in order to create better living conditions for everyone. Many people argue that Emma Gonzales is too young to take such a hard stance and argue that she knows nothing about real politics. For both these groups, the opposition uses the tactic of questioning their knowledge of what goes on in their country and other forms of discrimination to prevent themselves with being concerned about their surrounding climate. Wangari and Emma have both lived and experienced the atrocities that come with environmental destruction and gun violence and yet are questioned about their integrity. These two activist groups are prime examples of how activism and female leaders are subjected to gender bias. Proclaimed feminists are being attacked for fighting for gender equality because they show how women are strong and willing to stand up for themselves. The media likes to show women and children as the victims and we still buy into the notion that they need to be saved instead of working with women to stand up to injustice. Social progress is not something that should be gender specific in working towards. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/mar/24/emma-gonzalezs-powerful-march-for-our-lives-speech-in-full-video