Feminism is a unique concept that has evolved over the years. Through it all, women have been the crux of strength and struggle exemplifying both concepts gracefully with honor. Equality has been a perception with an ever-elusive definition, changing from person to person. In that way, the definition of feminism concurrently shifts from woman to man to child. To explore these different meanings of feminism, we reached out to people in our community to ask them their personal definition of feminism, inspiring us to create our own.

“I’m fine with the idea of feminism, but I’m against the amount of attention it receives in the media, blurring the entire concept. In my opinion, feminism equals equality, but the media just makes it seems like girls are being annoying about everything and using it to gain popularity.” — Richard Mistry

“I feel like feminism is misconstrued by today’s media. It’s no longer this glorious and honorable pursuit of equal rights but rather a group of half-educated angsty women arguing pointlessly without actually changing anything. I would believe in the cause as soon as we have someone legit to back it up.” — Srija Somaka

“I feel like feminism is the unification of women to create opportunities for everyone. It is being misrepresented in today’s society as being a group of uneducated, angry women. Although this is not the majority of feminists, banding together and standing as one will lead to a greater future for everyone especially women.” — Callahan

Based on my interviewees, a common concept was that although feminism is a truly valuable pursuit, how the media portrays it completely distorts its image. The only way to fix that, in my opinion, is for the next generation of women to step up and change the game for women and the world.

“Feminism is the empowerment and equality of all women despite sexual orientation, race and gender preferences.” — Rachael

“Feminism is protesting and working for equality, such as the day when men and women can both have equally deep pockets in all the pants they buy, regardless of which “gender” pants they are.” — Marium

“Feminism is being beautiful as you see fit. It is loving your own person and not letting the image society has created for women tear you down.” — Muriel

Everyone has a different perspective of feminism and rightfully so. Hearing from different people really shows that it’s not about what society says feminism is, it’s about what feminism means to you. Feminism isn't about taking away something from men or being crass. It is more about rising above the oppression society has created in so many different ways — not just including women. At the end of the day, be who you are, be kind and be respectful. In honor of National Women’s day lets rise above the hatred, be true to ourselves as well as others and ascend above the ideals of society and recognize we are all different. We all have different strengths and different weaknesses and above all else, we are all equally human.