Over these past few weeks, a lot has happened in the country. Donald Trump was inaugurated, the LGTBQ+ page was removed from the White House’s website and within 24 hours of being in office, Trump made an executive order to ban immigrants from entering the country. While the former three things have been troubling for most, one great thing did happen, and that was the Women’s March.

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the march myself, but I felt so proud and empowered as a woman to see how many people came out to support women’s rights. In fact, the march in Washington had three times as many people in attendance than the presidential inauguration. That says a lot.

And while the march has united a lot of us, it has also torn many apart.

The conversations I’ve had with people these past weeks have deeply disappointed and saddened me to see how many people truly don’t understand what feminism means. Many people seem to be under the impression that feminism is the idea that women deserve to be superior to men. That is the exact opposite of what feminism is. Feminism is the radical notion that women are people and deserve to be treated equally to men. Feminism is about males and females being equal.

So to the men who argue as to why it isn’t called “meninism,” if it’s about men and women being equal, this is what I have to say to you.

Do you walk home alone at night with your keys clutched between your fingers in fear of someone attacking you? Do you get called “slut” or “whore” when you take a shirtless picture? When you have a one night stand and tell your friends about it, do they "slut-shame" you and think of you as lesser? Do you walk outside on your own only to hear derogatory names being shouted at you by strangers? Before you answer any of those questions, I am going to answer them for you.

No.You don’t.

Because historically and systematically men have not been oppressed. Women, on the other hand, have.

“Sure,” you might say, “women used to be unequal. But now women have almost all the same rights men do. So what’s the point of feminism?”

While women have come a long way and have earned equal rights over time, that still isn’t enough. It’s not just about having the same rights men do. It’s about being treated equally with the same respect. And we have a long way to come until that happens.

So many people have told me how “useless” they thought the Women’s March was and how it was “a waste of time.” Ironically enough, a lot of these people who have said this have been men. If you aren’t a woman, you do not have the right to say that women aren’t oppressed or treated equally because you do not understand the struggles women face on a daily basis. If this doesn’t make any sense to you, it’s similar to how white people will never understand the struggles black people face on a daily basis — so don’t try to pretend that you do.

The march isn’t about rights we don’t have, it’s about something called equal rights.

It’s about protecting and keeping the rights that we have worked so hard to gain because we are in danger of them being taken away from us. It’s about being able to do the same things men do, without the double standard.

It’s okay for a man to walk around at the beach or pool topless. But if a woman does it, she’s a slut. If a guy tells his friends that he had sex, he is praised and rewarded, whereas a woman is slut-shamed. Boys are taught from a young age that it is okay to have as much sex as they want, whereas girls are told if they have sex before marriage, no one will ever want them. Boys are taught that it’s okay to be mean and pick on girls, and girls are told to not be so upset when boys are mean to them because that just means that they “like you.”

We grow up being told that “boys will be boys.” But boys will not be boys. That is not an excuse for disrespectful derogatory behavior towards women. It’s okay for guys to catcall women and make them feel unsafe and uncomfortable. And when a girl is raped, the first thing she is always asked is, “What were you wearing?” It doesn’t matter what she was wearing. A woman can and should be able to wear whatever the hell she d*mn pleases to. Just because she’s wearing a short skirt doesn’t mean she’s “asking for it.”

That’s what the Women’s March is about — showing that women all around the world, not just the United States of America, deserve to have fundamental human rights and be treated with equal respect. To show that it’s not okay for a public figure, least of all the president, to say that it’s okay to “grab her by the pussy.”

Something what is even more heartbreaking to me than men hating on feminism is seeing fellow women hating on feminism. An acquaintance of mine posted a picture of an article called “I Am A Female and I Am So Over Feminists.” One portion of this article particularly stuck out to me. That portion said:

“I am all about being a proud woman and having confidence in what I say and do. I believe in myself as a powerful female and human being. However, I don’t believe that being a female entitles me to put down men and claim to be the ‘dominant’ gender. There is no ‘dominant’ gender. There’s just men and women. Women and men. We coincide with each other, that’s that. Time to embrace it.”

Here’s the thing about that paragraph. Every single thing the author was describing is the exact definition of feminism, and yet she was arguing against it. The false beliefs and misunderstanding of what feminism is about is what leads to ignorant statements like these. Feminism isn’t the belief that women are entitled to put down men and claim to be the dominant gender. And anyone you meet who believes that and calls himself or herself a feminist it not a feminist. It’s radical feminists like that who give feminism a bad name. Feminism is not a dirty word.

Trump being elected into office by no means makes any of that better. If anything, his inauguration has given the “okay” to sexist, racist and white supremacists that it is okay to publicly be hateful towards people. But it’s not okay. So if you’re in one of the former groups, go back to your shell and stay hidden, because nothing has changed that has allowed you to come out of hiding. You are not allowed to come out and tell women that we are wasting time fighting for our rights or try to tell us what to do with our bodies.

Whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life, you don’t have the right over another woman’s body. And if you are pro-life, you may be ecstatic over the defunding of Planned Parenthood, but what you don’t realize is how dangerous that is. Most people fail to understand that abortions are only 3 percent of the services Planned Parenthood provides. Planned Parenthood provides breast exams to help detect and prevent breast cancer. They provide scans to help detect and treat life-threatening STDs. They provide sex education, pregnancy prevention and birth control, pregnancy tests, prenatal care, pap smears and so much more.

And if you believe that men and women should be equal, then I hate to break it to you, but that means you’re a feminist.

You don’t have to be actively protesting to be a feminist either. That’s literally all it takes — believing in equality of the genders. Feminist and feminism aren’t bad words. They’re good words that need to be used and expressed more often. Women need to stop hating one another and start supporting and loving one another. Especially in times like these, we need to stick together.

So stop being petty and thinking that you’re better and cooler than everyone else because you aren’t a feminist. You’re not special and clearly don’t understand what equal rights are about. So stop saying you’re over feminism, and start getting under it.