Recently, I took my first women’s studies class. I needed the credits and, honestly, I took it because my friend told me it was an easy A. Also, I could take the class online.

Awesome. So, the first day of class I logged onto Blackboard Learn and opened the assignment. All I had to do was read a few articles and respond. Man, this class is going to be a piece of cake! I thought as I began to skim the first article. Little did I know, it would rock my world.

Truthfully, I had never really considered myself much of a feminist. I had not ever felt the sense that I had less, or the same opportunities, as the boys. I thought that the problem of inequality between the sexes was solved, and everyone had equal rights! I was so naive.

As I read article after article, I realized that my mother (a strong and independent woman) had shielded me from the injustices that plague our society. I was one of the lucky ones who had been surrounded by strong, independent women who served as role models and protectors while I grew up.

So why am I a feminist all of the sudden? Well, there are two reasons. The first is because I learned the accurate definition of “feminism” at last. Here it is, via the Internet:

Feminism (noun): the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men.

Feminists do not hate men. Feminists do not want to bring men down. Feminists do not want to burn their bras (or maybe some do, I certainly have those days). Feminists are not all lesbians (though some are, which is fine).

Feminists do not want to establish some superwoman race (this is absurd and, even with recent developments in science, still impossible to my knowledge). No, feminism is not the She-Woman Men Haters Club. Feminist women are women who want to be treated just as fairly as men.

So, now that we have that definition down, we can move on to reason two. I am a feminist because I am a woman. When I got to college I did not have strong female protectors anymore. I had to deal with guys I thought were better than me, and girls that were definitely not on my side. College turned me into a cynical person. Girls transformed from friendly competitors that drove me to be a better student and well rounded human, into enemies that just saw me as competition in the dating pool.

Boys had always been respectful friends, but now they were yelling at me from the back of pickup trucks as I was running on the Quad. Not everyone was like this, but too many were.

Too many teachers dismissed my comments in class. Too many advisors turned me away from the sciences, and towards the liberal arts path. Too many times did boys ask me what sorority I was in before they asked my major. Too many times was I judged by professors for being in a sorority at all. Too many times.

What is missing in college in terms of feminism? Girls have the right to take the same classes as the boys. Girls can join the same clubs. Girls don’t have to sit at the back of the bus! The problem is fixed, right? Wrong.

What is missing on this campus, and campuses everywhere I imagine, is respect. I struggle with this. I get jealous of the pretty and smart girls. It is much easier to bring them down than to build myself up. But I am working on it because I want them to respect me, too.

Girls need to respect other girls. Respect the girls who take charge of their bodies and take birth control. Respect the girls who do not want nor need to take it. Respect the girls who want to wear a full-face of makeup every day.

Respect the girls who do not even own a tube of lip-gloss. Respect the girls who want to be teachers. Respect the girls who want to be engineers. Girls need to respect other girls! We need to be on our own side and respect each other. If we do not respect each other, then who will? Girls need to encourage girls! Because, I can tell you for sure, no one else is going to do it.

So I am a feminist. And you should be one, too.