Feminism: the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men

In a poll done by the New York Times, only 18% of Americans actually claimed to be feminists. While a whopping 85% of people said that they believe in "equality for women."

My question is, why is everyone so scared of this particular F-word?

Misandry:dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against men (i.e., the male sex).

If you asked a random woman on the street if she is a feminist and if she were to say "no", her reasoning behind it is most likely because she "doesn't hate men". A common misconception about feminists is that we all hate men and think that women are superior. This is actually called Misandry.

There are extremists in every group. Saying that all feminists "hate men," is like saying that every church is like Westboro Baptist. It's a caricature.

Why should people care about feminism?

I recently read an article on how people believe that gender inequality is starting to disappear. This is sadly false.

- Women who work full-time jobs still earn only about .77 cents for every dollar a man makes.

- One in four women are sexually assaulted.

-Four out of five victims of human trafficking are women.

- American women serving in Iraq or Afghanistan are more likely to be raped by a comrade than killed by an enemy.

Not to mention, women are always at a high risk of violence when denying a man.

The fact of the matter is, if people still call women demeaning words like, "slut" or "bitch" then we still have a long way to go.

Sexism: prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex.

Sexism is Katy Ledecky breaking a world record and Michael Phelps scoring the headline of a newspaper for winning a silver medal.

Sexism is addressing that what Brock Turner did as "20 minutes of action" instead of rape and only sentencing him to six months in jail because "A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him."

Feminism is about changing society's view of women and of people in general. It is about seeing your worth. It is about equality and having the same opportunities as everyone else.