Feminism: Emma Watson

I am a feminist. What disheartens me is that almost whenever a serious conversation is started/continued about gender equality and women's rights, there is almost immediately a backlash saying that feminists are overlooking abuse of men and male issues.

THIS IS TOTALLY NOT TRUE!

If I were to make a speech rousing people to support dog shelters because of dog abuse and abandonment, it doesn't mean I don't care about all the cat shelters which also need support, I'm just talking about dogs at this moment in time.

The negative connotations associated with feminism are popular discussion in some circles at the moment. When someone says "I'm a feminist", what some people seem to understand is something along the lines of "I don't care about male issues".

For example this article about Emma Watson's fabulous speech for United Nations is the kind of thing I'm talking about.
http://time.com/3432838/emma-watson-feminism-men-women/

Talking about gender equality without putting anyones backs up is bloomin' hard. Mainly because if we want equality, it means someone has to lose power/influence in order for things to be rebalanced more fairly. As men have had power throughout history, it is logical that most likely some men will feel they are losing something as feminism progresses, and if you are losing something it is natural to try and fight back.

Maybe I'm lucky, but I've never come across a guy who would abuse me or any other women around them. Sure, I've heard guys talk about picking out an outfit that will 'pull the ladies', make sexual jokes or innuendoes and head wolf whistling. But, although I personally find these behaviours distasteful, I feel women may have become over sensitised to some of these inappropriate behaviours to some extent.

Although wolf whistling is never something I'd condone, it's just plain embarrassing, upsetting and public harassment, the way girls talk about guys and guys bodies is definitely no worse than the way men can talk about women. I'm talking about admiration of a man's 'fit body', talk such as 'he's a hottie' or 'I'd do him". I think this is just as distasteful as the kind of apparently 'harmless' banter men might have.

So although it might appear that this post has become a slightly hypocritical in the way it's concluded, my final thought for now is this...
As long as we still base our comments/opinions/thoughts of the opposite gender on how attractive their bodies are rather than respecting them first as person, we are going to limit how far we can progress in the gender equality debate.

Any further thoughts on this, please add to the discussion in the comments...