I am proud to exclaim from the rooftops that I am not a feminist. I am not a member of a collective; I am an individual. As an individual, I refuse to align myself with a group of people who seem to believe that I am oppressed, easily taken advantage of, subhuman, or a victim. I am none of these things, and the majority of the American feminist population are not either. The problem with our generation, as I wrote in a previous article, is that we continue to find ourselves trapped in these boxes when none of us belong there!

Let me say it for the people in the back: We are individuals, not bodies in a collective.

The “I Need Feminism” campaign started a couple of years ago and has taken off. Even students at my tiny (supposedly conservative) Christian school, Westmont College, have joined in the movement. The project is a collection of photographs taken of people holding signs, saying, “I/We need feminism because (enter claim here)." For example:

“I need feminism because…my future should not be defined by my gender.”

“I need feminism because…domestic violence still exists.”

“I need feminism because…I want to hear both voices.”

And my favorite: “I need feminism because…our patriarchal, capitalist, heteronormative, white supremacist society leaves too many unheard.”

None of these are all-out lies. You are correct, your future should not be defined by your gender. Domestic violence does still exist. You SHOULD want to hear both voices. But if you feel there are too many voices going unheard, we here at Odyssey think the same thing. Ask one of our many writers how you could get involved, because we would love for you to voice your opinion. But not on behalf of an entire gender.

That is the problem with all of these claims. They seem to speak for all of us. My future won’t be affected by my gender, because I am going to put in just as much effort as my male counterpart, instead of complaining to him about how easy he has it.

Domestic violence does still exist, but one in four men have been victims of a form of physical violence, and one in seven men have been victims of severe physical violence, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The numbers for women? One in three and one in five, respectively. That isn’t as large of a disparity as the original claim seems to make it, now is it?

The person who wrote, “…because I want to hear both voices” was a man. If you choose not to hear both voices, that is a problem for you and your own conscious, sir, not the problem of society at large.

We don’t live in a patriarchal society, because a patriarchal society is a “family, community, or society based on or governed by men,” according to freedictionary.com. Both my households (my parents are divorced) are run by two people. One being a female, and the other being a male. They hold just as much power in overlapping and separate realms. This is a capitalist country. We fought a Cold War because we like capitalism. Heck, we fought Vietnam because we like capitalism. We had Afghanis fight a war against the Soviets because we like capitalism. So unless you are willing to accept that all of those lives were wasted because socialism (which has never, in the history of the world, worked) is the better option, stop complaining about it. We do live in a heteronormative nation because, guess what, we were founded as a Christian country, and it is extremely difficult to dig those roots up. Europe is just now doing it, and look how long it took them. This is not a white supremacist society. As a black woman, I am telling you that is the truth. As a third-culture woman, I am telling you that is the truth. I am not oppressed. No entire race is oppressed. You have attached unnecessary adjectives to a claim that is supposedly about women.

I recognize these are problems people face. They are problems that both men AND women face. Disproportionally, sure. But why are we so up in arms against innocent people? Why are males so under attack? Why must everyone become a feminist? If you claim to want equal opportunities for men and women, those who do not agree should have the opportunity to disagree with you, and not be subjected to the “feminazi” wrath.

Why has an innocent movement turned into a war zone?

If you were really for women, you would not alienate those who disagree with you.