“Feminist: the person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.”

Yes, I just quoted Beyoncé. Could you come up with stronger support?

You’ve heard this too many times: you’re exposed to a lot of pop culture. The internet is such a big part of everyone’s everyday lives now; I don’t even feel like I have to give support. Which is arguably a piece of support in itself. Ideas circulate so quickly, and opinions seem much louder than they are in relation to their actual importance. It all depends on what kind of community you’re exposed to. And in a lot of today’s media, feminism is such a taboo it’s like a bad word. It is often regarded as a hate movement. Feminists are loud, obnoxious, misandrist lesbians.

Take for example, a lot of celebrities, when asked if they consider themselves a feminist, reply along the lines of, “oh, no, because I don’t hate men, and I believe the rise of one gender is not going to help with equality. I don’t think it should be a rivalry.” It’s like they’re afraid to label themselves as something so commonly shunned. It’s said as if to reassure you. No, I’m a cool person, I’m not one of “those feminists.”

This is where I bring in my first argument. In our culture, females are portrayed as unreasonable. Actually, even more than that, the female gender itself is a stereotype that people use to describe things that are overly emotional, sensitive, and illogical; something to be teased. Just look at the makeup of our government and tell me it’s not a patriarchal society we live in. People don’t want a female president because they could be too hormonal. Apparently, however, this uncontrollable emotion logic flies out the window when men are unable to “control themselves” during cases of rape and the blame is pushed onto the victim.

Another example: people not being able to take teenage girls seriously. I’m sure you could find that applicable many times in your life.

If you’ve ever read the book Brave New World, you’ll probably remember the government using repetition of phrases to implant thoughts into people’s minds. It might be less prominent, but don’t tell me it doesn’t also exist in our society. Maybe you don’t think the gender gap is that apparent in 2014. You dismiss feminism as redundant because you think we’ve moved past the point of gender inequality in history. If this is you, I want you to ask yourself: what does it mean to “run like a girl?” Or, for that matter, anything else? Add “like a girl” to any verb and you have an insult. Insults to boys target their masculinity. “Sissy.” “Wuss.” “You’re acting like a girl.” Okay, what about this one: “grow a pair?” These are thrown around so much and can distort a lot in our subconscious minds.

I could also bring up ridiculously unnecessary gendered products. Guyliner, in case the word “eye” is too feminine for you. Watching a commercial for any hygiene product, you can immediately tell which gender they’re targeting. Because if it’s for males, it sounds like this: MEN’s body wash, for MEN, only! Black color, blue, SPORTS! Smells like MONSTER TRUCKS, muscles, use after WORKING OUT! It’s sad how this kind of thing is still taken more seriously than femininity is. It’s only socially acceptable that way.

The objectification of women is so clearly flaunted still. The ratio of the advertisements depicting females as sexual objects to those using males the same way is very disproportionate. A lot of the time, they are just an advertising tactic used to lure people to products, instead of being portrayed as people.

The subconscious understanding that girl’s bodies do not belong to themselves is relevant to everyday life. S*** shaming, for instance. You can take the same situation to both genders and have completely different aftermaths. This is an extremely common contemporary example an objectification that has written itself throughout history. In the past, and to some degree even today, it has been widespread in many cultures to not allow women to marry more than once, as they were seen as mere possessions of their husbands. Although women are in charge of their bodies and choices now legally, this viewpoint still persists in the form of s*** shaming.

This objectification carries on to many aspects of our lives. Birth control is giving a woman a right to control her body. By banning it, you’re saying that a potential, nonexistant child is more important than someone’s life. It’s saying that a woman’s body is just a vessel, a tool for being used and controlled by the wishes of others. Another common example is the notion that body hair is unacceptable on girls. These all play on the idea that women’s bodies are not fully theirs. I could just sit here and go on and on.

Girls are raised to know how to stay safe at night, how to act, how to be careful on the streets, how not to be a victim. This is not the problem. The problem is that this is done instead of raising boys to not victimize. Saying a rape victim was “asking for it” is today’s rape culture. People having to dress a certain way in order to not be molested shouldn’t be a normal aspect of life.

School dress codes are a case in point. Girls not being able to wear shorts or tank tops in fear of being “a distraction” is a deep reflection of our culture. Let me tell you what’s so wrong with this: it’s already teaching them that they are responsible for the behavior of others, rather than the people actually doing it. We are blaming the wearer for the perceptions of others.

This harmful culture needs to be stopped. In fact, there’s already a movement working on that! How convenient. So let’s consider not being slaves to our reputation in society and instead being a decent human about it.