What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word feminist? You probably stop at the prefix: fem-. That prefix directly translates to female, and that’s all people need to hear to start drawing conclusions.

“Feminism is for crazy chicks that want more rights than men.” That mindset birthed two of the ugliest words I’ve heard: “feminazi” and “meninist.” Two words that were conjured up by people who are scared by powerful women.
I’ll do something right now that’s never been done in the LION before: quote Urban Dictionary. A “meninist,” according to Urban Dictionary, is a (satirical) belief showing the hypocrisy of first world feminism by flipping the sexes and complaining about men’s rights in a similar way to what feminists do. Someone felt uncomfortable with women having the same exact rights as them, so they had to make up a word to mock it?

I’m not even going to quote the U.D. definition of “feminazi,” since the definition starts with “a crazy girl who supports women’s rights.” If she’s too into feminism, she’s too into herself, and therefore crazy, making her a feminazi? First of all, no one should compare anyone to a Nazi unless they actually believe in the Nazi party.

Anyways, I’m a crazy girl who supports women’s rights, but I am a feminist—not a feminazi. Women should not be getting ridiculed, mocked and compared to doctoral supremacists for believing in equal rights!

To put it in a simpler definition, the Beyoncé song “**Flawless” features an excerpt of a speech titled “We Should All Be Feminists” performed by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian activist and writer. The title itself is enough. Everyone should be a feminist. Men, women and children should be feminists, because it was never only restricted to women; it’s about equality. It’s about women having the same rights as men, and you don’t have to be a certain gender to believe that. The end of the excerpt is the most important: “Feminist: the person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.” I’ll say it a little louder for the people in the back: feminism is not just women being granted things that men are not, it’s just fighting for equal rights- the same fight that we’ve been having for years now.

There are multiple stereotypes behind being a feminist, but one of them is that you’re set to a certain political party or mindset, like if you’re a feminist you have to be pro-choice. Feminism is broad. For the 100th time, it is about equality. It isn’t that specific. Whatever political views you have, if you believe women and men should have the same rights as men, you’re a feminist. Simple as that.

Like Adichie said, we should all be feminists. Every single person should believe that women deserve the same rights that men do, that we should all be equal, that gender should not be a barrier for education and that women shouldn’t be stopped from doing something just for the reason that they’re women.

People scared of the word shouldn’t be threatened by women, as if we’re a large force that’s come to overpower the male population. This concept and cause has been thriving through history, and it will be alive and kicking even after men and women are considered equal.