Do you even know what feminism means?

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

I got quite upset, when I had a conversation the other day with a woman. The conversation was about how she preferred female doctors, dentists, etc. An then into the mix she threw in the phrase:
"But I am not a feminist."

I then asked her what she means by that. She said that she meant that she doesn't hate men. I then had to educate her that feminism is not man-hating. It is simply about women seeking equal rights to men.

Here is the definition: Feminism (Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2011: 522): "The advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of sexual equality".
Usually, when people say they are feminists, it gets linked to man-hating. But quite frankly, I like men a lot. A LOT! If this doesn't make sense, here is a picture:

This is what feminists are fighting for

I am a feminist, because:

• I believe I should earn the same money as a man doing the same work as me.

NOT THIS!

THIS!

• I believe that children can be raised to be literally ANYTHING they want to be, even if my son wants to be a ballerina. 
• I believe there are no gender roles, for example, women belong in the kitchen. (BULL!)
• I can do anything a man can.
• I believe it is fine if a boy wants to cry and it is fine if he is in touch with emotions.
• I believe a girl can play with cars and become a mechanic if she wants to.
• I believe in gender equality, in each and every aspect. 

I only recently discovered that there is a word for how I felt, when ladies complained that men don't open doors for them, but they won't do it for the men. It infuriated me. If you are not willing to open doors for men, why should they open it for you? I even open doors for girls, it's called common decency. 

It infuriates me when women, who are promiscuous are seen as sluts, whores, or whatever other names there are, but men are seen as legends.

But it it doesn't help talking about it and not doing anything about it. We should be the change we want to see. We should be the difference. We should raise our kids to be blind to race, so racism will be a thing of the past. We should raise them to become anything, because we never laughed at their ideas if they wanted to become something that is not according to their gender. WE should let them wear anything and play with anything they choose. We should let boys cry and girls be able to be strong or any way they choose to be! This is how we will reach gender equality. Women and men can be feminists, if you believe in gender equality. Please watch this video of Emma Watson launching the He For She campaign.

“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”
― Maya Angelou

“We've begun to raise daughters more like sons... but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.”
― Gloria Steinem