Feminism has been the buzzword for all of 2015, and it’s still going strong in 2016. Everyone’s Facebook feeds have been flooded with feminist rants, ironically hilarious memes, and an overall embrace of gender equality. Emma Watson’s UN speech was an inspirational victory for young women and Potter-heads alike. "Orange is the New Black’s" Matt McGory was my personal definition of goals last year when he wrote a pro-feminism article for "Cosmo." Ideally, this rise in the popularity of feminism should be good for the advancement of society, however, every trend comes with the unfortunate bandwagoners. In terms of feminism, these bandwagoners tend to hide behind the feminist movement as a way to shame other women, and as a result, they are actually setting society back.

To truly understand and detect those who are what I like to call “false feminists," we have to dissect what feminism truly is at its core. A feminist is simply a person who believes that all people are equal, regardless of gender. Yes, there are millions of books and articles that elaborate on this topic, but all of them would agree that feminism is inherently about equality. That being said, it’s time to throw away the idea that a feminist is a bra-burning, armpit hair-sporting, ferocious man hater. While all these things are acceptable, if that’s what you’re into (minus hating men, because that’s just called being a hypocrite), it should no longer be the archetype associated with feminism. Feminists come in all shapes, sizes, and various levels of sass and attitude. My favorite color is pink, you’ll never catch me wearing sweatpants, and I own over 15 shades of MAC lipstick, but I definitely identify as a feminist. Again, a feminist is merely a person who believes in and is an advocate for gender equality.

Now that we all know what a feminist is, it’s time to go back to my argument against “false feminists." These are the women who try to use feminist ideology as a way to shame other women. We all know a few; these are the women who scold stay-at-home moms, call women who dress conservatively prudes, or claim that basically anything a man says is misogynistic. In other words, a false feminist is a straight up hater hiding behind smoke and mirrors. These women are one of the worst threats to the goal of gender equality, because in reality, they are shaming other women, and are therefore making the problem even more internalized in the female community. This is just as bad as, if not worse than, a man shaming a woman.

The best examples I can use for false feminism are Ayesha Curry’s sadly misworded tweets. (DISCLAIMER: I do not know Ayesha personally, nor do I know whether or not she considers herself a feminist, but the wording of these specific tweets perfectly embodies false feminism. Her family is beautiful and Riley Curry is my hero.) Here are the tweets:

All I could manage to do when I read these tweets was sigh. This is a perfect definition of a woman shaming another woman for a personal choice. Yes, it is perfectly okay if Ayesha wants to wear conservative clothing. I support her in her choice to do so, because who am I to tell another woman what she can and cannot wear? However, I will never support shaming another woman for choosing to wear a crop top and booty shorts. Why? Because it is a woman’s prerogative to choose what she wants to wear. No, I do not support a woman wearing crop tops because she believes that’s the only way she can get attention in the patriarchal world we live in. But, if wearing a crop top makes you truly happy, I am fully behind this, because there is a huge difference between choosing to do something because you want and because you have to.

I want to put emphasis on the word “choice." We as women need to learn to come together as a community and be advocates for having the right to choose who we want to be in this world. The reason that feminism is so important is because, for the greater amount of history, women were not allowed the choice to be themselves. We weren’t allowed the choice to explore our fullest potential. Now that we have so much more freedom in deciding what we want to do and how we want to do it, we cannot allow anyone to make us feel bad for making that choice. And I will be damned if that shame is coming from another woman.

Moral of the story? Embrace your fellow ladies' right to be who they are, even if it doesn’t line up with who you want to be. Also, make sure you’re doing everything for the right reasons, not because you feel pressure from society. 2016 is going to be the year of making our own choices and being an advocate for our peers. Once we are able to unite as women and accept every female for who we are, then we can make the step to truly break down the big barriers. We will not be able to overcome societies belief that wearing a crop top makes you a slut if we can’t even agree to allow women to be themselves. LOVE EACH OTHER, Y’ALL.