Feminism doesn’t mean I hate men, it means I hate ignorance and inequality.

“Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” –Cheris Kramarae

I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t write about the upcoming election and the candidates. I don’t know everything about politics, just what I would want a potential president to discuss and focus on to move our country forward.

I’m not trying to use this article to persuade voters one way or the other. I will reiterate that I am not here to write about political campaigns. However, I may bring up Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, and I will admit this article topic came from some worrisome ideas, opinions, and audacious verbal obscenities from one of our candidates in addition to my mother venting about gender roles in our society.

Yes, this is another article about feminism and gender equality. Or more so the idea of feminism and how I think it is playing a huge role in our society right now.

I believe women and men are becoming more vocal about many issues regarding human rights in our country, and right now we are talking about treating women with the same respect and holding them to similar standards as men.

We also need to discuss how clear this country is divided on so many issues, but especially the concept of treating people equally. This is not limited to equal rights for women, considering our country is at a point where we are demanding equal rights for gender, sexuality, race, socioeconomic status, religion, and many more human rights.

However, being raised by an outspoken feminist and a guitar-playing Dead Head can be a good recipe for having children who don’t see the world as a divided entity. My brother and I didn’t view certain things as feminine or masculine and that either of those stereotypes applied to us. We kind of just went through our lives seeing these ideas as society’s recommendations for a “normal” upbringing.

But I did always shy away from the ordinary.

#FeminismIsCancer

So, I wanted to start with bringing your attention to a fairly recent topic that was trending throughout the social media world. The hashtag, “Feminism is Cancer”, quickly spread through Twitter and gained increasing attention amongst people who actually seem to really hate the feminist movement.

Many women were quoted in an article from Harriet Sinclair at International Business Times called, Generation Trump: Meet the women who think feminism is cancer. This article brings to light the women who actually support the U.S. Republican front-runner, Donald Trump, despite his obvious opinion that women aren’t very worthy of respect (I cannot even take anyone seriously who makes excuses for his repulsive comments toward women).

Don’t get me wrong, I know people are entitled to their own opinions and can support whichever candidate they please. That’s fine.

But, what is not fine is how absurd some of these women sound. I love my fellow women and feel that we should empower each other, but I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that some of these statements from women who believe “feminism is cancer” are serious.

A self-proclaimed “political activist”, Myah Bowermaster, was quoted saying, “a lot of feminists don’t consider men’s rights because they see men as lesser or think all men are rapists or all men are bad or all men are oppressors and we are oppressed.”

Well, maybe that is correct for some women. They may hate men and believe all men are evil. I understand that some feminists can come off that way.

However, feminism isn’t about trying to become the greater sex, it is about being equal.

If some people ignore the rights of men and view them as lesser beings, then I agree that it’s not moral to deny anyone their rights. But, this statement shows me that this young girl completely misses the point of the feminist movement in the first place. Honestly, she probably doesn’t even understand that without the accomplishments from the first generation feminists, she wouldn’t even be allowed to share her opinion on the election so openly, and certainly wouldn’t even be allowed to vote in them.

Another woman (Erica Alduino) said, “… 21^st Century American women are possibly the most privileged and well treated women since the beginning of human existence, and they act like they are all simply victims…” she goes on to say that feminists believe in the movement to fulfill “selfish and misguided needs.”

The issue here is that, yes she is correct in saying that women now are treated better than in the past, for the most part. However, what Alduino doesn’t understand is the fact that women still have to fight for equality.

Just because we have more rights, does not mean we should simply stop fighting and take the unfair treatment because our situations have improved when compared to the past.

My needs are neither “selfish” nor “misguided” when I demand to be making the same amount of money as a male colleague. Or when I feel unsafe out at bars with my friends because some men feel they have the right to demand my phone number (and call me a bitch when I say I’m not interested), or just skip that step altogether and grope me wherever they please without my consent.

Journalist (and activist against violence toward women), Julie Bindel, was quoted using the best explanation for this backwards movement of comparing feminism to cancer. Bindel stated, “If that’s what these women think [that feminism is cancer] we should make sure they are paid 30% less than men; make sure they have no rights unless their father, husband or brothers give them any, they mustn’t vote or have legal rights. They can go without all the things feminists have won- then we’ll talk.”

So, please Miss Bowermaster and Miss Alduino, go and educate yourself on the real feminists of our nation and what they fought so hard for, just to have you follow some misguided idea that people shouldn’t be allowed to stand up for what they believe is right.

#RepealThe19th

The second mind-boggling topic floating around the Twitter-verse more recently was the hashtag “Repeal the 19^th”.

Yes. When we thought our world couldn’t be more messed up we have the moronic Trump extremists who actually thought that repealing the 19^th Amendment would be a POSITIVE thing for our nation.

If you need a reminder, the 19^th Amendment is the one that gives women the right to vote.

The idea came to light after Nate Silver did a “thought experiment” at fivethirtyeight.com. Silver tweeted 2 separate (hypothetical) maps showing Electoral College voting differences if only 1 gender voted, compared to the other gender. If only women voted, Hilary Clinton would most likely win by a landslide; if only men voted, then Donald Trump would win.

The most repulsive issue with that idea is that many WOMEN agreed that repealing the 19^th would be the best thing to happen for this election. One woman tweeted that she would “gladly” give up her freedom to vote, if that meant Donald Trump would win the presidency.

A man (Michael Maier) was quoted after tweeting, “give out nice enough handbags and most broads would gladly trade their voting rights for one. #repealthe19th”

If you’re not offended that this man thinks that all women care about are new handbags and material objects, over their right to vote, then you should at least be offended that he actually still uses the term “broads” when referencing women.

The origin of the word “broad” comes from many different ideas of the 20^th century. Here are a few of those meanings from Why are Women Called “Sluts”, “Dames”, and “Broads”? :

“Simply referencing a woman’s broad hips.”

“Perhaps from the American English ‘abroadwife’, which was a term for a slave woman, or just a woman who was separated from her husband.”

“Another popular theory is that it came from a slang term for a ticket… to refer to a prostitute, thus a pimp’s ‘meal ticket’.”

I wonder if Michael Maier realizes that it took 72 years (from 1848 to 1920) for women to win the Suffrage movement and gain the right to vote and be viewed as actual human beings, not as property or “broads”.

I also wonder if he realizes that women were arrested and did jail time for protesting and experienced violence and assault from guards in the jails and bystanders in the streets who opposed the feminist movement.

#WeNeedFeminism

According to Donald Trump women are objects placed on this Earth for his visual pleasure, for reproducing, and for groping without consent. Mr. Trump has a very disgusting, disrespectful, and offensive attitude toward women. He has been very outspoken about his views toward women, and shows no remorse about the terrible things he has said or done toward women.

And this is the best presidential candidate the Republicans could come up with?

Not only focusing on Trump, other people have been forgiven or ignored for their violence and degrading ideas toward women.

Chris Brown still remained successful and topping the musical charts even after we all knew about his violent assault of ex-girlfriend, Rihanna.

Rapist Brock Turner got an embarrassingly (on the justice system’s part) low sentence for raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster, and a father who publicly stood by his rapist son’s side calling the rape, “20 minutes of action.”

There is something very wrong happening in this country (many things actually) and we need to get our shit together. I refuse to have another 72 years of oppression because some sexist, uneducated individuals think the feminist movement is all about man bashing and bra burning. We need to remember that feminists do not just include women, but every human being, because we all want to be treated equal.

We need feminism now more than ever.