Since I was a young girl, I have considered myself a feminist. Even at a young age I have had a strong sense of pride for being a female. Always flinching at boys who would intimidatingly announced that “I throw like a girl” in gym class, I realized that women are looked down upon in our society the hard way. “Girls aren’t as strong as boys”, “girls are more sensitive than boys”, “girls can never work as hard as boys can”. Stereotype after stereotype, I came to the realization that our society is screwed up, and that is putting it nicely. Sorry to say it, but I refuse to live in a world that women are symbols of weakness, inviting others to declare what we can and cannot do.

However, it was not until I entered high school that I realized the term “feminist” had such a negative connotation. Years later, I can still vividly remember my classmates laughing at me after I openly expressed my role as a feminist in class one day. Their immature shouts of “male supremacy!” and “feminists suck!” are forever imbedded in my mind. I constantly wondered, how could anyone want to deprive women of equal rights? How could someone want their mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters not to be equal in the “Land of the Free”?

And then it hit me. The people who do not like the term “feminist” are actually people who just do not understand what it means. It’s almost as if my classmates who laughed at my declaration as a feminist solely breathed ignorance; they just didn’t know any better.

So for those of you who “hate feminism” and need some clarification, here’s what it’s not:

It does not mean that women want the population of men to become extinct. It does not mean that feminists hate men. It does not mean we want to deprive men of rights. It does not mean we want to create societies of just women. It does not mean we want to kick out all men from politics. And it definitely does not mean we want you all dead.

When I was ten-years-old I discovered that other ten-year-old girls around the world were deprived of education. I then disturbingly learned that women in other countries have so many restrictions that most cannot even show any skin. It also came to my attention that the sex-trade is one of the biggest markets in the world, where young girls like me are sold daily as slaves. This is what feminism is all about. Our goal as feminists is to abolish global gender inequality. If that means we begin our journey with eliminating the pay gap in the United States, then we will start there. And we will not stop until one day there is no such thing as “gender inequality”.

If you still cannot comprehend feminism’s purpose, get it through your thick skull. Stop taking “feminism” personally, as if we feminists want men to suffer or lose freedom. We are not out to “get you”. Wake up and finally realize that this world is in dire need of change. The future is not the so-called “women supremacy” you are all so terrified of. The future is equality.