I have written about various topics for Odyssey, but I have seldom touched upon feminism and the perception that many people have of the word that carries a negative connotation. There will be some people who scoff and refuse to read any further because they believe that I will be going on a rant about how I feel people should be equal, but disclaimer: It will not be a rant. I simply hope to provide some insight into a topic that many people ignore like the elephant in the room for the sake of everyone else’s comfort.

What prompted me to consider talking about feminism this week is a clip that I saw on Twitter of the ABC television show “Black-ish.” The show features a black American family and often discusses social issues that largely pertain to race and how race relations impact the lived experiences of black Americans. The clip that I saw featured a discussion about whether or not women should have to change their name once they are married. Dr. Rainbow “Bow” Johnson (Tracee Ellis Ross) argued with her husband Andre “Dre” Johnson Sr. (Anthony Anderson) that feminism is not about hating men, but rather is about allowing women “to have choices.”

The “Blackish” clip reminded me that there are still many people who do not fully grasp feminism or are unwilling to grasp what feminism is, so let me break it down a bit more. Feminism is not about “balancing the field” by making women superior to men; that is not a balance. Rather, feminism is about offering men, women and any other gender that one could identify as the opportunity to live their life without feeling restricted by societal expectations. These expectations largely come as a result of stereotypes, such as women must take their husbands names and—the commonly mocked one—shave their legs, but can also be turned on its head and reflect the expectations of men, such as that they must be “the bread winners.”

Feminism does not say that anyone has to go against social norms, it simply explains like Bow said that if you choose to go against these norms, you should not be punished or ridiculed. Feminists are often mocked for the women shaving example—like was done toward Bow on the show—by saying that if you are a feminist, you are “a hairy-legged hippie.” The ridicule that women (and men) encounter when trying to break the stigma that surrounds feminism indicates a lack of respect and how that lack of respect furthers the disillusionment that people are under about what it means to be a feminist.

Feminists are not man-haters: many men are self-identified feminists. In the simplest words that I can conceive, feminism unshackles the chains of a person’s lived experience that restricts them and binds them under an inherent system of privilege that many people are ignorant to. The aforementioned ignorance that is experienced comes from a place that is known by Ange-Marie Hancock, the author of "Solidarity Politics for Millennials: A Guide to Ending the Oppression Olympics," as “defiant ignorance.” By Hancock’s definition, defiant ignorance is the denial of “the existence of any and all victimhood or stratified systems of political power” (Hancock 14). To avoid making this article into a research paper, the point that I, based on Hancock’s definition, am most simply trying to make is that we live in a society under male hegemony and feminism offers a solution.

If you or anyone else does not want to comply with societal standards, then that is OK. If you choose to go with the social norm and not stray from that path, doing so is also acceptable. Feminism seeks to protect both parties and as Bow said, give everyone an option. It is incredibly important to not take uninformed perspectives as fact before informing oneself. Feminism will affect everyone differently regardless of their gender depending on what other ascriptive qualities the they possess, such as race, age or sexuality. As Hancock states, these various categories intersect to form one lived experience and they are never mutually exclusive where we can experience on ascriptive quality and not another.

At the end of the day, some people may never feel the constraints of any power structure and that is fortunate. However, the privilege that comes from not experiencing any form of oppression or discrimination does not give these same people the right to invalidate the lived experiences of others. My experiences as a woman in society will never be the same as the character Bow’s from “Black-ish” or any other woman of a different race, sexuality or class. These qualities all factor into how feminism tries to protect all genders and how it helps people not only fight against gender inequality but also fight against other forms of prejudice such as homophobia, ableism, classism and racism.