Feminism is irrelevant in today's society

Okay, so let's scratch my definition of irrelevant then and define "unnecessary". [1] Unnecessary: not needed. I will start of by rebutting some of your points. Domestic Violence 1) In your first argument, you claim that women are the abusers, not men, and that women abuse men more often then men abuse women. If we take a look at a credible source, such as (DVS) "Domestic Violence Statistics" you will see that the statistics for women whom are abused are much more serious and of a higher rate then men who are abused. [2] Every 9 seconds in the US a woman is assaulted or beaten. Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. Most often, the abuser is a member of her own family. Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women—more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined. Studies suggest that up to 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually. Nearly 1 in 5 teenage girls who have been in a relationship said a boyfriend threatened violence or self-harm if presented with a breakup. Everyday in the US, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends. Ninety-two percent of women surveyed listed reducing domestic violence and sexual assault as their top concern. Domestic violence victims lose nearly 8 million days of paid work per year in the US alone—the equivalent of 32,000 full-time jobs. Based on reports from 10 countries, between 55 percent and 95 percent of women who had been physically abused by their partners had never contacted non-governmental organizations, shelters, or the police for help. The costs of intimate partner violence in the US alone exceed $5.8 billion per year: $4.1 billion are for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly $1.8 billion. Men who as children witnessed their parents’ domestic violence were twice as likely to abuse their own wives than sons of nonviolent parents. Now, let's compare this to the men whom have been abused statistics. [3] Nearly, 15% of women (14.8%) and 4% of men have been injured as a result of IPV that included rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.[iii] As you can see, there is a dramatic difference in the percentage of both genders who have been taken advantage of or have been beaten. Consent Here you are simply that if a women gets raped, and or is taken advantage of, it's simply her fault. This is in fact, very untrue. When someone is drunk, they have no control over their mind. Alcohol has a major impact on the brain, so people aren't allowed to control themselves. [4] Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways, and can affect the way the brain looks and works. These disruptions can change mood and behavior, and make it harder to think clearly and move with coordination. As you can see, you don't have control over your body. So if a guy tries to rape a women while she is drunk, he will more then likely succeed because the girl is unaware of her environment, thus leading to rape. Pay Gap In this claim, my opponent admits that there is in fact a gay gap by saying that there is a "23 cent" gap, then he seems to get confused and say that "Just to put the cherry on this sundae, the wage gap, if it ever existed, it legally should have gone away in 1963 when JFK signed such legislation. Another problem I have here is he says " should have gone away in 1963 when JFK signed such legislation." Okay then my question here is: What did JFK sign? And what should have gone away? My opponent fails to argue that the pay gap is a issue. Why Feminism is necessary. First, I would like to give you a background on how Feminism started AKA "The Women's Movement. [5] Charles Fourier, a Utopian Socialist and French philosopher, is credited with having coined the word "féminisme" in 1837.[11] The words "féminisme" ("feminisme") and "féminist" ("feminist") first appeared in France and the Netherlands in 1872,[12] Great Britain in the 1890s, and the United States in 1910,[13][14] and the Oxford English Dictionary lists 1852 as the year of the first appearance of "feminist"[15] and 1895 for "feminism".[16] Depending on historical moment, culture and country, feminists around the world have had different causes and goals. Most western feminist historians assert that all movements that work to obtain women's rights should be considered feminist movements, even when they did not (or do not) apply the term to themselves.[17][18][19][20][21][22] Other historians assert that the term should be limited to the modern feminist movement and its descendants. Those historians use the label "protofeminist" to describe earlier movements.[23] In today's society, men want to ignore the fact that women get taken advantage of way too much. Who is to stand up for them? This is why we have feminist. To 1, protect our right's and 2, to protect our self's and stand up for what is wrong. Men like to think that we are all equal when that in fact isn't the case, people would rather ignore the fact that we aren't equal because they'd rather not deal with it. 14 reasons why we need Feminism. [6] 1. Because women still dealwith catcalling on a daily basis. 2. Because there are currently only 20 women serving in the United States Senate, compared to 80 men. 3. Because America is still very much a patriarchy. 4. Because although we’ve made some great progress with female CEOs … 5. Overall, women still earn less money than men with the same education level. 6. Because a woman’s appearance is still under a microscope. 7. Because in the United States, a woman is raped every six seconds. 8. And more often than not, the victim is blamed. 9. Because women have been fired because of their looks. 10. Because women experience terror when walking alone at night. 11. Because pepper spray shouldn’t have to be a necessity for women to feel safe. 12. Because women should be allowed to decide what happens to their bodies. 13. Because in a domestic abuse case, people ask, “Why did she stay?” instead of, “Why did he abuse?” 14. And because even if you’ve never personally experienced any of these things, other women do…every single day. We women have the freedom to do what we want, nobody should be able to wake away our freedom of speech as stated in the first Amendment. I look forward to you argument! Sources: [1] https://www.google.com... [2] http://domesticviolencestatistics.org... [3] http://www.thehotline.org... [4] http://niaaa.nih.gov... [5] http://en.wikipedia.org... [6] http://www.buzzfeed.com...