This house believes that the feminist movement should renounce the title of "Feminism".

Ladies and Gentlemen this debate revolves whether the term Feminism is still needed so that equal rights could be achieved. And as side proposition, we believe that the feminist movement should renounce the title of "Feminism". Why? 1) The idea and connotations behind the word "feminism" have become so corrupted that they give gender equality activists, ie feminists, a bad name, therefore should be renounced. 2) That the meaning of the word itself is flawed. 3) The feminist movement has met its objectives, the title of "feminism"" is now no longer needed to empower women, therefore should be renounced. Let me begin by raising some statistics. In 2005, a poll conducted by CBS asked 2 questions: (1) Do you consider yourself to be a feminist, or not? (2) A feminist is someone who believes in social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. Do you think of yourself as a feminist or not? In answer to the first question, only 24% of women and 14% of men answered yes, whereas in response to the second there was a drastic increase, with over half of participants answering yes. What does this show us? This tell us that in today's society, the title of "feminism" no longer means what it should, and therefore must be renounced. The connotations behind the word have shifted from a word of empowerment and equality to a title that can only be taken with the belief that women are superior to men. It has become associated with feminist extremists and misandrists who damage the integrity of the title itself. Although these people do not represent the majority of feminists, this is what the word has come to mean. With a world dominated by the media, the gross exaggeration of "feminist" ideals has tainted the feminist movement's image, and consequently make people shy away from feminism. The title of "feminism" is in fact doing harm to the feminist movement by discouraging potential support with its bad rep. Carrying on with this, we can see that the word "feminism" takes on many more meanings that it originally entailed. Liberal feminism, radical feminism, marxist feminism, cultural feminism, ecofeminism. Search deeper and there are probably a myriad of examples. The title "feminism" has branched off and diversified so much so that it has become difficult to ascertain what it truly means to be a feminist. It is no longer true to its initial meaning, and in fact clouds people's knowledge of feminism itself, confusing them and further alienating potential feminists. Again we can see from this that the title of "feminism" is doing more harm to the feminist movement than good. Moving on to my second substantive: The the word itself has limitations. The word feminism is inherently inferior, as it fails to regard the rights and contributions of half of the other half of the population. Obviously in the past it has served its purpose to empower women, but in the present many feminists have come to take the stance that men cannot be part of the feminist movement. This is holding back the progress of the feminist movement, and becoming a huge obstacle in feminism's true purpose: to promote equal rights for both sexes. It is much inferior to a universal term such as "equalism", which takes into account the contributions and opinions of all groups in society. This is another reason why the title "feminism" should be renounced: because equality cannot progress beyond a certain point until such exclusive terms are abandoned. I will be introducing my 3rd point in the coming round.