I
didn’t mean to become a feminist.
It wasn’t exactly part of the big plan. Not that I avoided it, but I wasn’t searching for a cause or anything like that.
I didn’t actively seek out feminism. It just happened as a natural result of learning about and realizing all the problems that exist in society today.
There are many casual and widely held attitudes in society that shame and disrespect women.
There are a lot of unequal opportunities in the world. There is so much injustice. There is so much violence, rape and harm.
Even if by some miracle — a miracle I sincerely wish could be real for everyone — a girl’s life is entirely free of casual misogyny, and she claims to not need the women’s rights movement, I still would encourage her to be a feminist. Why?
Because there will be another girl, perhaps in another city, or in another country, who needs someone to fight for her. Girls need girls to fight for one another.
Sixty-two million girls in the world do not go to school. One in six women in America will be a victim of rape in her lifetime, and in 31 states, rapists can sue their victims for visitation rights and custody to children conceived from rape. Throughout the world, nearly 25,000 girls are forced to be “child brides” every day. Women make up 50 percent of the U.S. population, but only 18 percent of Congress.
We need to fight for girls who are denied an education by men who are scared of what will happen when women learn to see beyond their own situations. We need to fight for young girls who are sold as sex slaves, girls who are forced to marry men twice their age because their fathers view them as property and girls who are killed and disfigured for not conforming to the expectations set by society.
We need to fight for the girls who are viewed as too weak or too stupid to pursue what they love, for the girls who have been raped and don’t know it isn’t their fault. For the girls who have been abused and think they deserve it.
Feminism is about more than any individual’s experience as a woman. Feminism is about overall equality of gender, in every facet of economic, social and political situations.
I love being a girl. I want the world to love and respect girls. I want women everywhere to help and respect each other.
We are awesome, and we can do so much for each other.
Female friendship is a wonderful treasure, especially in the difficult years of college when we are all figuring out what we want to do in life.
We cheer each other up. We say things like, “That looks good on you. You look cute today!” We buy each other coffee when we’ve had a hard day.
We buy food together and put all the groceries in one cart. We send texts that say, “Let me know when you get home safe!” We binge-watch Netflix together, and listen to each other’s 2 a.m. worries. We celebrate each other’s victories. We woman-crush-Wednesday each other. We accept one another, support each other’s goals and aspirations and comfort one another when those goals are hard to reach.
It’s important for women to support other women. We should support females here at UF and girls all over the world who need help — who need a friend.
Feminism is about support. Feminism is inclusive. I am a feminist because equality is always worth fighting for.
Sally Greider is a UF English and public relations sophomore.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 10/29/2014]
