I've grown up with two brothers, and the world that they were brought into is very different from my world. I can see the differences between raising males and females. Of course this is not my parents fault, it's the society we've learned from.

My parents never told me you need to be afraid, but it was done almost subconsciously. Girls are raised understanding that we live in a dangerous world. We are taught to never walk alone, don't dress to "provocative," and that we are physically weaker than men. I have many distinct memories of all the times I needed to play it safe, but my brothers were free. This isn't anything they can help, they were just born in the safer gender. They were born into the gender that was raised to go through life fearlessly.

The differences can be seen more blatantly when looking at colleges to attend. I remember on all of the college tours I went on, the first question my mother asked was, "What does the school do for safety?" If she wasn't the first one to do it, it was another parent of a female student. Now, I'm sure that the parents of the boys cared about safety, but it wasn't their first concern. I asked her months later if she would have asked the same questions if it were my brothers on these tours. She replied with "No, but it's different for you guys and you know that." Unfortunately, I did know that, because girls are taught to fear the men around them and mothers learn to fear for their daughters.

It's time to stop living our lives in fear. It's time to stop teaching young girls that men will always be entitled to whatever they want. In light of all of these feminist movements, we have more power than ever to say "I'm not afraid." I understand that fear may forever be a part of us until men stop feeling entitled, but we can try and show the world that fear will not stop us from living our lives as freely as men.