By Melody Del Rio

Staff Writer

Feminists are “batshit crazy”, according to the widely popular Urban Dictionary. 

The negative connotations associated with feminists have made some women reluctant to identify as feminists. 

The reality is if you believe in human rights for all, you are a feminist by default.

I don’t understand why women say they aren’t feminists. 

From a young age, I have been told what to do and how I should act. Even as a young woman I grasped that there are laws that tell me what I can and cannot do with my own body. 

There is a constant struggle to protect the rights that I am entitled to and to challenge the restrictions that the government determines should apply

to me. 

These restrictions limit what and how I do things.

Knowing there are laws or rules that tell women how to manage their bodies, has shown me there isn’t equality and that bothers me. 

Looking through my Twitter timeline, I find that feminists have been associated with angry women who look to take over the world and destroy men. 

There is a common misconception that feminists oppose men’s rights and put

men down. 

I remember seeing a tweet about a man opening the door for a woman. 

The woman was visibly upset, stating that she could open the door by herself. The man in question then complained that feminists are crazy. 

I think the term feminist gets confused with misandrists. Misandrists are people who are strongly prejudiced against men, thus, the complete opposite of what a

feminist is.

I promise not all feminists are angry. Feminists have their grievances but not in the sense that they want to destroy men. 

Feminists want equal rights and are frustrated because decades worth of protests have yielded little change. They’re still fighting for their human rights.

In retaliation to the feminist movement, some men have rebranded their own men’s rights movement called “meninism.” 

According to BBC News, the term “meninist” was originally used to describe men who support women’s rights, but in 2013, the meaning was changed after a ‘Meninist’ Twitter account was created to satirize feminism. 

In his Time magazine article, author Nolan Feeney said the hashtag “#Meninist” generally falls into two camps: “people who use the term to call out the ways they believe they’ve been victimized by feminism and people who make fun of the first group for not understanding what feminism means in the first place.”

One prominent anti-feminist, a writer for Medium named Anna Senneff wrote and posted the piece “15 reasons why I’m not a feminist.” 

Senneff claims she isn’t a feminist because she thinks men’s rights are important too, and being a feminist encourages the idea that women are always victimized.

True feminism supports the rights of every individual on the planet, not just

women. 

The movement advocates for women’s rights, men’s rights, the rights of people of color and LGBTQ rights and values.

Feminists understands that there are inequalities amongst groups of people and thus feminism encourages everyone to stand up for

one another. 

Feminism does not entail or promote a hate for others nor does a person who identifies as a feminist want to take over the world; they just want everyone to be equal.