We’ve all heard it. Some of us love it and some of us absolutely hate it. There have been multiple occasions where I have said this word and people have ended the conversation because they hated it so much. For those of you who hate it, keep reading. You’ll be surprised by what I have to say. I’ve noticed that a lot of people don’t really understand this word. These people think they know it, they think they understand it and they hate it. But I want to talk about what it actually means.

Webster’s Dictionary defines feminism as the theory of political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism is not hating men. I can’t make that clear enough. The hatred of men is misandry. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who mistake feminism for misandry. Because of this many people refuse to define themselves as feminist even though they believe in what feminism stands for. Feminism is treating men and women as equals. It is expecting both men and women to achieve the same levels of education, to make the same amount of money for the same work. It is treating your sons and daughters with the same amount of love and making sure they both know that they can express their feelings. It is teaching them both that they can achieve their dreams if they work hard enough. Feminism is allowing women to still succeed in their careers even if they have a child. Feminism is encouraging fathers to be involved in their children’s lives, because fathers are just as important as mothers.

I’ve also heard some people say that we no longer need feminism. They say that because women are allowed to vote and run for president that there is no more work to be done. But there are so many reasons why we still need it. In the U.S. women have a lot of rights, but they still are not seen as equal to men. Look at the dress codes in schools. Girls are not allowed to show their shoulders because it can be “distracting” to the male students. Girls are taught that we are the problem, we are taught that our bodies are a problem that need to be covered up. Once, when I was in seventh grade a friend and I were putting on lotion before cheerleading practice. One of the boys in our class was staring at us and the teacher came over to us and told us to stop. In the rudest way possible she informed us that we were being distracting and we needed to stop tempting him. He was never told to stop watching us or that he shouldn’t have even been there in the first place. It was all our fault.

It is things like this that lead to victim blaming. When a girl is sexually assaulted, one of the first questions people ask is what was she wearing? Was she drunk? These questions are blaming her for what happened to her. Quite frankly it doesn’t matter if she was wearing a low cut shirt or had been drinking earlier. What does matter is that she was assaulted. What happened to her was not her fault, you cannot blame her because some monster never learned to control himself. It is not her fault that society let him believe it was okay to justify his actions on her clothing. The people who teach that it is the victim’s fault are the same people who propagate the idea that men cannot control themselves. Men today are starting to stand up against this idea, they no longer want to be thought of as animals.

More men are becoming feminist today, for several reasons. One of these is because of the HeForShe campaign. This campaign encouraged men to begin referring to themselves as feminist and join the feminist movement. In Watson’s speech she discussed how our culture does not allow for men to be emotional. They are taught to be aggressive. Watson concluded that if “men are no longer expected to be aggressive and controlling, women will no longer be expected to be submissive and controlled.” By allowing men to be human, we are allowing women to be viewed as equals.