For a long while, I was rather against Feminism. I was against it because whenever I would go on YouTube, there would be another video made with these angry screaming women in it and one lady talking about how an air-conditioner is sexist. Yeah, so I get why there are many people still against it, however, we should be hells to the grateful, considering you wouldn’t be able to vote, choose to be on contraception, have safe abortions and so much more if it weren’t for Feminists.

I do believe that there are different kinds of Feminists and I do strongly believe that some people take it to the extreme, but that just seems to be human nature. I definitely don’t enjoy telling men they are trash, because I do agree that not ALL men are trash, but a lot are trash and its tragic. Being an angry man-hating woman isn’t going to get you all that far, I feel like it jeopardises the work done by women from the past and the work being done by the women of today. Instead of people acknowledging the purpose of this cause, they make memes about how angry we all are. So you’ve taken something good and just kind of ruined it for those who aren’t that way.

I’ve spoken to women who refuse to be Feminists or associated with Feminism due to the stigma attached that we all hate men and want to fight with everyone about our vagina. Sometimes I laugh at this because so many people are uninformed about Feminism and believe or base their views on stupid media bullshit they saw on the internet. I’m not trying to recruit new Feminists, everyone is allowed to believe in whatever they want. This is more just my personal feelings towards Feminism and how it’s helped me.

Feminism has taught me to embrace my sexuality, uplift other women instead of putting them down, accept my body the way it is, acknowledge my rights as not just a woman, but a bloody human being and most importantly its taught me that I don’t have to conform to gender stereotypes. I don’t have to have kids, I can focus on my career and my life. This may not be for everyone and that is totally okay, no judgment from me in this regard I just want Feminism to be taken seriously because like I’ve stated, there is a lot of hate and there shouldn’t be any because this is about humans who want the freedom to make their own choices regarding their body as well as being treated as an equal. If you put genitalia and physical strength aside, we are both human and are therefore both just as deserving of equality as the other.

There is a definite attack on women by the people in power in so many countries. America is the biggest attacker of its female population. Banning abortion and sentencing the mother to jail for “killing” a fetus now that is WACK. Sorry, off you go to jail because you decide to terminate a pregnancy for whatever reason, it doesn’t matter as it has nothing to do with us what you do or don’t do to your body, but it bugs us Right Wingers so we’re going to make it impossible and give you some jail time if you have an abortion. Basically, we’re telling you we don’t care about you as a human being only the group of cells that hasn’t even developed close enough to remotely look like a baby. This is why we need Feminism, things like the abortion ban can happen at any time in any country and that’s when we have to stand together and voice our opinion in hopes that someone will for once listen.

My favourite is the people standing around shouting things like, “it’s still a life”, “the man also helped make the kid”, and ”there are so many people who can’t conceive naturally and here you are aborting”. Tell me, have you checked in lately at your local Children’s Home? I bet you haven’t and that’s usually because humans are selfish and even though there are hundreds of thousands of children who are starving to death, don’t have a home or their birth parents beat them, we’d rather have our own. I’m not saying no one should have children, I’m only saying don’t use infertility as an excuse to tell women what to do. Just because Jesus or whoever said be fruitful and multiply doesn’t mean we as women are here to be incubators without a choice.

I’m so grateful that I, as a South African woman can go have an abortion safely, I can be on contraception which I can either buy myself or I can get it from a State hospital for free. When it’s election time I can go on down to my nearest voting station and vote, I can get my license and drive a car, I can get divorced if I want, I can have a career, I don’t need to be escorted by a male everywhere that I go (however with the rape statistics in South Africa, I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing). These are just a few examples that I can think of off the top of my head.

Remember women are extraordinarily fierce, we can endure extreme pain, we are capable of putting up quite a fight as well as nurturing the hell out of anything and everything. We, I feel are two extremes. We can be so soft, that we might just fall apart, but we are also mighty powerful and can strike down with brutal force. We may not have the physical strength of men, but we scare them because as weak as they think we are, given enough power we could take over the world and I believe that one day we will be given what is owed to us, equality.