Feminism, although it primarily affects women, affects everyone in some way. Our world, with population nearly equal in respect to the genders, values hyper masculine traits over all else, promoting misogyny and toxic masculinity.

1.Boys are told from a young age that because they are male, they cannot show too much emotion, and are actively discouraged from enjoying any activities that are seen as “feminine”. Some of these so-called feminine activities are essential to survival in our modern age, like cooking, cleaning, even helping to bring up children. From a young age, children are taught they must fall into two predetermined genders, and cannot veer from the stereotypes that come with the assignment.

2.Young girls must watch as boys receive much more encouragement when they enter STEM fields, and are then ridiculed for not taking an interest in such things. More women in STEM fields means more people and ideas in STEM fields, helping to move our society to better things, and, because young girls are often left behind in lieu of boys, we do not have as much progress. Being a young girl interested in math and science, I watched as the number of girls in whatever activity I was in dwindled down to fewer and fewer of us. Why was I being pushed out?

3. Feminism isn't only limited to women's advancement. Many of the issues negatively affecting men are a topic of interest in feminist forums, including repression of emotion, hyper masculinity, and rape. Most boys, from a young age are taught to repress emotion, leading to high rates of suicide among males. In 2013, 78% of suicides in the UK were males. This also begins to lead to other hyper masculine traits, including heightened aggression.

Feminism is not a women's only issue, it is an issue that all people should be interested in and should support.