Rachel Wang: Gender Inequality is not a Standalone Issue at TEDxYouth@Edmonton (Transcript)

Rachel Wang – TRANSCRIPT

Imagine, imagine a world of constant peace, constant prosperity, constant justice, and constant equality. Impossible to imagine perhaps. That’s because we’ve yet to see a world like this. But this perfectly highlights why feminism exists. Feminism is the unified struggle for not only gender equality but equality in general. By the people of the people and for the people. Everyone gets the same equal chance regardless a few persons we cannot control.

This is what feminism is about: it’s about bringing people together, it’s about dealing with the unpleasant truths of inequality that plague us today and having the courage to deal with these truths. Now I know many individuals out there who think I’m talking too late. I don’t believe that to be the case because nobody, absolutely nobody deserves to be treated like a second class citizen.

And as youth, we can make a difference by speaking up and working together. It’s about bringing together Black and White, Asian, Latino, gay and straight, young and old, immigrants and locals. When we bring ourselves together, we can achieve great strides and the movement towards equality. Together, because only divided can we and will we fall. And by standing together, we become as Bernie Sanders artfully puts it: “the future to believe in”.

Change starts with you and me. But what makes me qualified to talk about the empowerment of people for equality? Simply because inequality exists. Just as you are qualified to talk about this issue as well. Sometimes I even catch myself succumbing to the gender stereotypes. But in these situations, I stop, think and ask myself: where are all these premises set? Media, popular culture and Hollywood.

These standards are drilled into us at a young age, but I’m not here to denounce pop culture either. Because goods things have come out of pop culture, one being the acknowledgement of the need to address the inequality that exists today. However, not only can we not blame pop culture, we also must blame society, which I know a lot of people do, for the inequality that exists today.