Wow. All I can say is wow. I think I spoke about certain aspects of the Odyssey community in an article that I wrote before. I love Odyssey and I love how we can come together to share our differing opinions and learn something new about different perspectives, but I literally hate when people just talk out their butts.

Excuse my language, but it's literally what it is... some of the stuff they're saying is just crap. No disrespect though, because I know everyone has their opinions. But here's the thing about some opinions: they're just that, opinions, not facts. I hate when people try to take their opinions and try to make it seem factual. I also really hate how people talk about certain things without having any experience or knowledge about the subject.

Let's take the articles that were on the rise this past weekend on the Odyssey website. Articles like, "I'm An 18-Year-Old Female And I'll Never Be Feminist" and "I'm The Girl Who'd Rather Raise A Family Than A Protest Sign" were prime examples of how little knowledge about a subject can do a person no good when arguing for their point.

Once again, I'm not debunking their arguments or belittling their intelligence, but what they were putting out there in their articles are in fact NOT what feminism is about.

Let me break it down for some of you conservative millennials out here.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary (which was my saving grace during all of my practice for the SAT, so I think they're pretty trustworthy), the definition of feminism is, "the theory of political, economic, and social equality of the sexes".

Take note of one very important word: EQUALITY.

Oh my god, I just choked on my drink a little. EQUALITY. What a blasphemous, horrible thing???? PEOPLE ARE EQUAL? WHAT???? HOW???

Yeah, it's almost as if we're not all human-beings, with lungs, a beating heart, and the ability to think for ourselves. Go figure.

Anyway, back to the point I was making. Feminism is about the EQUALITY of the sexes. So let me speak about some of the things in the articles I had issues with.

1. "'A man told me to have a good day... I'm triggered'. How ludicrous does that sound?"

LMAO, I was literally triggered just reading that. It doesn't sound so ludicrous when you've been tormented, sexually violated, and catcalled by countless men all your life.

We see men get turned down by women who don't want to go on dates with them, and then the next day those same women are killed.

We see little girls and teenagers getting raped in the news all the time and it's because of some people's twisted fantasies about submission and crap like that, and it's DISGUSTING.

Take the trash novel, Lolita for example. That just shows that for men, from the day women are born, we're just sexual objects to them to fantasize and masturbate over. It's disgusting. Society TELLS us that women have to be hypersexualized in order to be "respected" in this society... but guess what? The "respect" we get is nothing close to what it really means. I didn't know respect meant we received validation from men.

Oops.

So I'm sorry that I feel a certain way when a man tells me to do something, and I don't know what his intentions are. My bad. And I'm not saying that all guys are like this. If a random guy told me to have a good day and high fived me, hell yeah, I'll try to have a good day! But when it comes off as too creepy and predator-like... that's how you know something's wrong. It's not OK.

2. "Reality Check: Men and Women are not equal"

Without even getting into sexuality and gender-fluid topics, physically, yes, men and women are not equal. They have different genitalia, obviously. I recently learned that men can lose weight faster than women because women need to store the fat for bearing babies.

But that's only physical stuff. Like I said before, feminism is the political, social, and economic EQUALITY of the sexes. Last time I checked, it didn't say anything about physicalities. Even though they are not equal physically, we as a society can still strive to be equal on a political and social and economic standpoint. I remember some guy really tried to fight me and say that the wage gap doesn't exist because you can have a woman CEO who makes five times the amount of money as a man who works as just a teacher.

I was like, son...... do you not understand what that means?

The wage gap literally means that when women and men in the same position and profession, the women get paid SO MUCH less than the men do. And don't even get me started on BLACK women's wage gap.

So yes, even though in some aspects we aren't biologically equal, women still can be just as smart, just as successful, and just as influential as men.

3. "I know more female managers in the workforce than male"

OK, that's cool. I know more women in STEM than men too. That's not the point of feminism (or of the women's marches).

Just because something progressive happens, it doesn't mean we should stop fighting.

When Obama became president, Black people didn't stop fighting for their rights because having a black president didn't mean social inequality was over. Just like how knowing more women in higher positions doesn't mean that women still aren't treated like trash in this society. They're still going to be seen as "less than", no matter how high up on the ladder they are. They're still going to be hypersexualized and people are still going to wonder why they aren't "at home cooking instead of doing a man's job". That is totally OK, if you want to stay at home and take care of your children. But what's wrong with that sentence is that some men only see us as being worthy of being homemakers, when we are built for so much more.

I feel as though ALL women should be feminists and ALL women should be marching out there with their picket signs and loud voices because there are still issues that need to be dealt with. We still need more women to be representatives for the generations to come. We still need women to be treated like they are real human beings.

4. "I'm tired of being belittled for being a traditionalist"

I do agree, some people take things too far. Some people who claim to be feminists literally bash other women who feel more comfortable staying at home and raising a family. Like I said before if you want to do that, that's totally OK. But just like how some feminists shouldn't bash stay-at-home-moms, those same stay-at-home-moms shouldn't bash feminists. We all have a certain way how we want to live our lifestyle.

But there's one thing about feminism that I forgot to mention and it's so important:

Feminism is also about women and men supporting each other to be the best they can be.

So if someone wants to be a CEO or a housewife, that's totally fine. And hey, if a man wants to stay at home and take care of his kids, that's totally fine too!! As long as we support each other, that's totally cool. I just don't want to slip back into traditional mindsets that some people have about gender roles and what it means to be a woman or a man in this society. Especially since gender is FLUID, these roles aren't always so set in stone and black and white.

Men and women should all be feminists because it is about making the sexes equal to each other and supporting each other throughout this journey.

It's not about placing women higher than man, bashing men, or hating men. It's all about equality, people.