Hi. I'm 18, I'm female, and I'm PROUD to be a feminist.

The other day as I scrolled through my Facebook feed, I came across an article entitled something similar to my above statement, except its message was quite the opposite: rather than pro-feminist, they were anti-feminist. In the article, they make the usual arguments about man-hating and extremism, and how in this modern age, feminism has been given a bad name and therefore is unnecessary. They make some valid points, and I entirely respect their opinion. I won't pretend that people with the ideologies they point out exist, nor will I pretend that they aren't wrong and awful. What I will say, though, is this: you have entirely missed the point.

Feminism is NOT about hating men or freeing the nipple (though under both of these have an underlying message relevant to the feminist movement). Feminism is, and always has been, about equality. It's truly that simple. And anybody who believes anything other than that, they are not a feminist and they do not represent feminism. If you cannot delineate between the two, do some more research.

My point is not to change your views, Ms. Anti-Feminist, or magically turn you into a protest-sign-holding, patriarchy-bashing feminist. My point is that, no matter what you believe, in this mess of a world where women are killed for saying "no" and still don't earn as much as men for equal work in one of leading countries in the world, feminism, this fight for equality, is still desperately needed. And even if you deny it, we will still be fighting for you and everyone like you.

So I repeat: I am 18, female, and a proud feminist. And I hope that one day there won't be a need for another article like this.