Feminism has been quite the controversial topic lately. Pretty much everyone has their own opinion on the subject, and why they do or don't need it. I, for one, think that everyone could benefit from feminism.

To start off, I would like to explain what feminism is for all the people who do not know. Feminism, by definition, is the advocacy for women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. For some people, feminism is seen as a bad thing because they only look at the radical part of the movement, containing women who hate everything about men and want women to be above men in every aspect of life. I am not one of those people. I am one of the people in the middle, just hoping that some day people will see what I see, that women are not treated equally to men, but they should be. They need to be.

The first moment I fully realized that people truly believed that every feminist is pure evil was a slightly scary sight. I had been scrolling through an app, minding my own business, when suddenly I see a post comparing feminists to the KKK, simply because they believe that they should be able to wear what they like and not be raped for it. Why someone could form this thought in their mind, I will never understand, because the two do not equate in any way.

With the rise of feminism is current society, came the rise of another trend: meninism. Meninism is a "satirical" take on the feminism movement used to make fun of feminist ideals. This damages the feminist movement because it teaches people that feminism does not need to be taken seriously. This is not only damaging to the movement as a whole, but damaging to women in general. It can be seen in the light that women do not need to be taken seriously, and that they are just around to look pretty. Women need to be seen as whole people with wants, needs, and desires. Women are people who need to be listened to, because if they are not, the world will be full of women who never speak their mind, and men who don't take answers they don't like.

Women have been silenced by men for a long time. They are expected to sit down and shut up while the men are in the spot light, getting all the glory. They have to sit back and watch while men get credited for things women have done. This needs to end. It has long been time for women to get the attention they deserve. It is time we praise all women for the good they do.

So, why do I need feminism, you might ask. As a person who can recognize their own privilege, I like to think that I need feminism for all women with far less privilege. All POC women, trans women, women in countries where a woman is still barely recognized as a human. All the women who have been silenced by life and hardships. I need feminism for the women without a voice.