As A Female In College, Your Voice Is More Important Than You Know
Why is it so important to have a strong female voice in college?
Here's a brief story before I go into the importance of having feminism on any college campus:
I was sitting in one of my classes freshman year of college in the early days of September. In other words, college had just started for me, and I was finally having reality thrown at me. Growing up, there were certain topics that couldn't be talked about, or just never were. For one, feminism was only talked vaguely in textbooks, and possibly in an English class if the book pertained to that topic. However, in this class, a history class no less brought up the topic of feminism.
During this conversation, I soon realized that a student was giving an interesting definition of feminism. It was most certainly wrong, yet no one seemed willing to correct them or did not know the student needed to be corrected. They said that feminism was women trying to overpower men, and women trying to blame men. The student said that feminism was women trying to be above men, in other words, have more rights than men.
This is false, and no one knew how to correct her, because many people are not taught the proper definition of feminism in a classroom unless they are specifically taking that class.
Women who call themselves feminists and say they want to be above men are not feminists. They are sexist. It is the same as men saying they are above women. They are sexist.
Here is the true definition of feminism as told by Webster Dictionary:
1. the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.
2. organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests.
Many people assume that all feminists focus on women having equal rights, but this is not entirely true. They are focusing on the equality of all the sexes. This means men, women, and all other sexes that are listed.
Now...why is feminism important to have on a college campus?
For one, it is to prevent students from thinking feminism is about women being above men. Feminism is not about women being above men, and it is not about men being above women. It is a group of people who are seeking to have equal rights between the sexes.
For another, young people will sooner or later make up the future adults in society. If students on college campuses understand the true definition of feminism, that alone can make a huge impact on society. All sexes can have the equal rights they deserve faster and more productively.
A huge topic is a feminism revolving only on women. I've heard from several people in college and outside of college say that feminism is only for women. You may be wondering, how do I answer them? This is what I say.
"Do I have to be gay to support gay rights? Do I have to be a rabbit to support animal rights? Then why do I have to be a woman to support women's rights? I should be able to support all rights if it is something I believe in."
Men and women on a college campus have a right to believe in what they believe in. It does not matter who the person is. A person can be transgender, asexual, homosexual, agender, heterosexual, transsexual, ally, non-binary, and many more can support feminism and not specifically be labeled as a woman or as female. They are simply a supporter of feminism, no matter their sexuality or gender.
Feminism goes even further with race. A woman is a woman, no matter their race and a man is a man no matter their race. Feminism is feminism and it does not discriminate against any man or woman. All sexes are part of a race, which means feminism supports the rights of all sexes from all races.
On a college campus, people from all different background, genders, and sexualities walk the grounds unaware of their similarities. They are all people, therefore, at least one thing connects them to each other. That alone is what feminism stands for. The simple idea that people are the same because they are people, contributes to all people from all sexes deserving equal rights.
