A Young Girl's Manifesto

I'm a feminist.

I'm a feminist and I'm proud to be one. I value equality rather than superiority. I'm not an equalist, but a feminist. I'm a feminist, because feminism, by definition, is an advocacy to achieve equality between men and women. So why do I have to use another word just to prove my vision? Feminism doesn't fight for men, rather it fights for gender equality. It wants equal rights socially, politically, and for all other aspects of the society among both genders. It wants equality and unity for both genders rather of them being two opposing ideas. But I need not to use the root word 'equal' just to prove that we, feminists, want equality. I use the word feminist because Feminism is the movement. Why not equalism? Cause we haven't achieved yet. We use equalism when it's all done. We are fighting for something that is not there yet. And we haven't achieved equality so why use equalism?Why do we have to argue about the word itself? Just cause there's "feminine" and no "masculine" in it? Why are there narrow minded people who doesn't understand what the movement is for, and yet comments about the word? The problem with society is that, we comment on things we don't fully understand and it creates confusion among those who are not knowledgable.

I can see women who hates being called a feminist. Because feminists now are labelled as feisty, egoistic, and man-hating women who thinks that all men are going to provoke them. This is where another confusion goes. These people are called Feminazis. They are the ones who creates confusion among those who doesn't know anything about feminism. Now, they choose not to be one cause they don't want to be labelled as feisty or man-hating. But feminism isn't about man-hating.

Actually, feminism helps both genders. There are men who gets raped. There are men who experience sexual abuse. Let's look in Perks of Being a Wallflower. The main character was raped, and he didn't know about it. He wasn't given any chance to protect himself against abuse. Now, feminism's voice must be heard. Men are labelled by the society as the ones who are abusing women, the ones who are hurting our sisters, and the ones who are provoking. But I think it's because men thinks they need to feel superior. They need to act superior. They can't lose their cool. If one stops being aggressive, the other stops being submissive. Now if we achieve this, men won't have to keep their emotions, and women won't have to feel fragile every time. If we achieve this, we give everyone the right to feel strong and vulnerable at the same time.

I'm a feminist, and though I have very little information about Maya Angelou, or Emma Watson, I know that my mind, my heart, and my soul wants equality. 

At age 14, I officially declare that I'm a feminist, and I'm proud to be one.