“You can’t do that because you’re a girl.” The infamous line that has been stitched within the wounds of my struggles not only tries to define me but all the girls in the entire world. I’ve had my fair share of sexist comments and an equal amount of opportunities to speak up for myself only to be branded as a feminist. “Feminist.” Some men will hiss this word like the serpent from the Garden of Eden. They try to taint and poison the true meaning of feminism in an attempt to diminish the empowerment of women.

We are strong. Feminism is not about bringing down men in order to bring up women. Men and women are like the yin and the yang, night and day, the sun and the moon. We are supposed to balance each other and to love one another. This article isn't being written to criticize or critique the behavior of men, although some men do not appreciate the worth of a woman. Some men will teach their daughters that they are nothing more than a submissive housewife or that their brothers will accomplish more in life because they are men. Some men will believe that feminism was created to bash and mistreat them. Some men will ignore the treatment women in other developing countries are given.

I have never witnessed anything worse than the abuse a lot of women face. Yes, women are different from men. We are, generally physically weaker but we are still strong mentally, we are still beautiful, and we are still powerful. The stories I’ve been told about women being raped, drugged, abused, and treated like lesser beings brings tears to my eyes because even if it’s not me being mistreated, we are all connected and we all feel the same pain.

While you are sleeping at night, there is a young woman right now being raped because she is seen as an object to the man holding her down. Many will scream for justice but there is still a large majority of people who will blame this incident on the victim.

“Did you see what she was wearing?”

“Who let her go out that late?”

“I managed to get through life without being raped.”

“At least he let her live.”

You’re probably thinking nobody would actually ever say that. Yet throughout my life, these phrases are what I have heard growing up, from both men and women. What happened to the sympathy that my mother taught me when I was five years old and I saw a homeless man on the street begging for food? As she pulled me in closer to her and told me that this man had no home but that for now, we could bring him food to fill his belly and some money to help him for a little bit. What happened to the care my teachers taught me when we learned about the Civil Rights Act and they told us that we are all to be treated like equal human beings?

I am very grateful for the life I live. I’ve known very few cruel people and I was raised with unconditional love. However, there are some women who just aren’t as lucky. I don’t want to be a statistic of a girl who made it through life untouched by the mistreatment of a double standard. I want to be the statistic of the girl who fought to end the double standard, to end the mistreatment, to balance the equality of men and women. I want to be a girl who can do that thing and not because I’m a girl, but because I’m a human being. You should want that too.