feminism (n.)

1. the policy, practice or advocacy of political, economic, and social equality for women (feminist.org)
2. the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities (merriam-webster.com)
3. the radical notion that women are people (on a shirt I saw)

Now, most of you who clicked on this article probably don’t agree with feminism because Delphi, IN is firmly ensconced in the small-town belief that everyone is equal and why are all of these women and black people fighting for equal rights? Well, that’s because we’re not all equal, and allow me to explain how.

A shocking percentage of the American population seems to believe that feminism is synonymous with man-hating. It’s not. All of that stuff that you see about how women are the superior gender and how men suck are purely opinions spoken by radical feminists, which are feminists that take feminism to a bit of an extreme. There are radicals in every type of society, but that does not mean that the belief is defined by those radicals. Feminism, as mentioned before, is the belief that both men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.

For instance, women should be paid the same amount of money for the same job that men are doing. In fact, a recent study found that men with less experience than women still make more money. The general overview is this: two years after graduation from college, men generally earn more than women who have been in the workforce for six years. I even read an article where a woman who went to college for four years made $40,000 less than her husband who only went for two years at the exact same job. I understand that some men are better than women at their jobs, but some women are better at their jobs than men and they should be paid accordingly, not shorted because there’s a chance they could get pregnant.

To continue, women should have the right to their own bodies; no old, white man in Washington D.C. has the right to determine whether I get birth control or not, especially when 58% of birth control users rely on it for purposes other than pregnancy prevention. And so what if the other 42% of women who are on birth control use it for pregnancy prevention? I don’t understand how half of the population is screaming about how abortion should be illegal, yet they want to get rid of something that, when taken correctly, is 99% effective in preventing pregnancy. Even when the pill isn’t taken correctly it is still 91% effective. So, you’re upset that women are using birth control in order to not have babies because they don’t want to have a baby (for some strange reason), but you also don’t like it when women get abortions; so, if a woman who didn’t have access to birth control did get pregnant but either did not want/could not support/could not carry a baby, what is she supposed to do? Please explain your logic to me.

Women should be able to walk down the street at night without fear in their minds, without running through self-defense methods, without a death grip on their phones. (Next year, I will be off to college. Does no one else find it disgusting that if I’m walking back to my dorm after a late night of studying at the library that I’m going to need to be on the phone with someone or literally hire a bodyguard? And I still won’t feel safe? And if something were to happen to me, it would be my fault for walking alone at night in a skirt, because I would most likely be wearing a skirt BECAUSE I LIKE SKIRTS, because my attacker “just couldn’t control himself.”)

I’m sure some of you may not see how this equates to similar rights and opportunities between men and women. Allow me to shed some light on the subject: women are sexually and physically assaulted because men think they are better than them and because they believe they have a right to their bodies. Sexual assault is an act of domination, violence, and entitlement. What about that definition makes it sound like rape is the victim’s fault? Now, as much as I would love for sexual assault to stop, I know it won’t, not immediately. It’s like murder; it will always happen. But what we can do is stop the sexualization of women’s and young girl’s bodies. Exhibit A: school dress codes. Exhibit B: catcalling. Exhibit C: beauty before intelligence. I don’t know how any woman can say that she is okay with walking down the street and getting lewd comments thrown at her. For me, I’m sick and tired of seeing those videos, even though they say why this shouldn’t be happening. It should just stop. We are people, not toys for you to play with.

Men often get free condoms handed out to them. Girls not only have to pay for their sanitary products, they get taxed on them as well. Why is it that men get something that they don’t need literally thrown at them while girls are taxed on something that they need in order to complete basic hygiene? *cough* male privilege *cough*

Yes, we are better off than many countries in women’s equality. (Even though we are 45th, after Cuba, Jamaica, Rwanda, and the Philippines.) Yes, we have the right to vote. Yes, we can talk in the presence of men. Yes, we are able to work. But we are not equal because men are still treated better. And I, a white woman of middle-class, am no where near as oppressed as women of color, gay women, and transgender women. I understand that feminism can look like a dirty word, but it’s not. All feminists want is for the world to be equal―men, women, black, white, straight, gay―because we are not. So, please wake up. You don’t have to march, you just have to support.