“I don’t need feminism because I am NOT a delusional, disgusting, hypocritical, MAN-HATER! I respect men, and they respect me!”

Feminism is a dirty word in many people’s minds. It means, “man-hater”, s*** or ignorant. The people who think of it this way are simply mistaken. Either they aren’t educated in what feminism means, they don’t care to learn, or they are privileged and don’t see any oppression of women in third world countries. The plain fact is that women are not given the same opportunities as men. Yes, we have made progress throughout the past hundred years, but we aren’t equal yet, especially in countries where women aren’t given education or sexual liberty. We need feminism to bring women up to the level men are held in modern society. This brings up the question in people's’ minds, “But what about men’s rights? Why isn’t it just called equalism?” To start answering this we have to define feminism. The Merriam Webster definition is, “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” It’s called feminism because we want to bring women up, not drag men down. To answer the second part of this we simply have to look at what feminists are writing about and trying to advocate for. Everywhere you look, modern feminists are writing about standards for men that are unrealistic. We recognize that men have beauty standards just like women do. It’s not to the same media extent but it’s present. Men have emotional, “macho-standards” also. They’re expected not to cry. Expected to be strong and protective.  There are some men who don’t fit these standards and feel like outsiders. Another great example of feminism advocating for men is the raised awareness of unfairness in legal situations. Almost always, women are given the advantage in custody cases just because they are the mother, leaving the father with the only chance to see their child being on holidays and weekends. In rape cases, when a male is the victim, they are scoffed at, maybe called “gay” because they didn’t want sex with a woman. Men shouldn’t be treated as animals, who only crave sex. Feminists hold the belief that men can be victims of rape. We believe that if he is raped, he isn’t any less of a man for not wanting it. These issues are addressed and fought for.

Regardless of these social injustices to men, we have to acknowledge the amount of oppression women are put under in today’s society and we must know the difference between “white feminism” and “intersectional feminism”. A lot of people are offended by the term, “white feminism”, as I was when I first heard it, but I decided to do my research and find out what it actually means. After I did this I realized that it’s called “white feminism” for a reason. Surprisingly, someone can be called a “white feminist” even if they aren’t white. The term is dubbed on feminists who, when speaking on equality issues, don’t address the way different races are treated. An example could be a “white feminist” explaining the wage-gap. She would say, “women are paid 78% of a man’s salary!”. What this feminist doesn’t include is that African American women are paid 63% of a man’s salary and Latina women are paid 54% of a man’s salary. If the feminist mentioned above would have included these facts, she/he would have been speaking on “intersectional feminism”. This is important for two reasons. First, it brings in race equality which is an important topic in this day and age. Secondly, it speaks on one of my earlier points. Feminism wants to bring women up to the level of men. Using the example of wage gaps, we want to first bring all women to the same percent of men’s pay, then we can worry think about fighting for equal pay as a whole, instead of divided by our race.

As you can see, feminism isn’t a hate group, or a term put on “ignorant women who hate men”. It is a movement. A movement towards equality. We want everyone to have the same opportunities and sexual freedom as men. We want men to be free of their “macho standards”. This means that no matter what, race, age, or gender someone is they deserve to be treated with respect. Sometimes feminists come off as angry or loud, but this is a side effect of caring and being passionate. Making mistakes and being angry is human and trying to gain social justice can be frustrating, so naturally feminists can get angry that people won’t understand the issues we believe need to be solved. Usually if a feminist gets angry, that one reaction is focused on and people only think of that negative thing they’ve heard. Yes, this going to hurt the feminist reputation. Yes, we have to be careful because of this. To bring equality to all genders we need to educate as many people as we can and make others see the positive of this movement. We need to break the stigma of “man hating feminists”.