“I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femaleness and my femininity. And I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be.” - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I was once told that if someone looked at my Twitter profile, they would instantly know that I was a feminist. This raised many questions in my mind.

Why does being a feminist have a bad connotation? Is it because I want the same pay that a man receives? Is it because I want my body to be my own?

Being a feminist should not be a bad thing. Being a feminist is fighting for women’s rights and for ALL human rights. Being a feminist is making sure that little girls everywhere know that they can be whatever they want to be. Being a feminist is knowing that women are not weak and need to be taken care of.

We march on the streets. We create campaigns for sexual assault. We do whatever it takes to have the world notice that we deserve the same rights as anyone else. We must and we can take down the patriarchal system in this country. We are doing this because we are angry. If you are not angry, you are not paying attention to the injustices that many people face in this country.

We are doing this because we want respect. We believe in giving people the same rights that they deserve and need. Regardless of gender, age, sexuality, we should all have an equal chance to be a CEO or to even be paid the same. We are doing this to smash the glass ceilings. We are doing this to show that we can achieve anything that we put our minds to.

This issue with society is that we teach girls to grow up to believe that they have to behave and look like princesses and that they must conform to society’s views. We teach them that a woman’s job is to take care of her husband. We teach girls to always be conscious of how they appear to others.

Even in my own house, my mom said to me “Always be pretty and be kind. Look your best. You never know if a boy is looking at you.” We should not be teaching girls that they have to look good to attract men. Girls should look good because they want to. They should be taught that they can be anything they want to be whether it’s an astronaut or the President of the United States.

People say that feminism scares men. So what? If a man is afraid of a woman who knows her own worth, then he is not the man she needs to be with. We should all be teaching girls to think for themselves, not teaching them to worry about what a man thinks of them.

We should all be fighting for equal rights. Men and women alike. And we need to do better. Yes, we have our marches and our campaigns, but still, not enough is being done. It’s time for all of us to come together to fight for these rights of not just women, but all people. Both men and women should be feminists so that together we can strive to take down the injustices in our world.

So, I have something to ask you. Why aren’t you a feminist too?