About five or six years ago, I was, like many teenagers, trying to “find myself.” I was unsure of everything: my beliefs, my morals, my standards, everything. I didn’t know where to turn: I was angry and bitter, and I had no outlet for those feelings. Then, one day as I was surfing the Internet, I came across an article on feminism on some obscure little website. Having never heard the word before, I was curious. It talked about the empowerment of women and how it could only be achieved through protesting everything anti-woman, and doing so as often and as loudly as possible. From that point on I was hooked. While I couldn’t actively get out there and picket ‘anti-women’ events and whatnot, I was extremely outspoken on my beliefs on feminism. And I was radical in those ideas, too. Did I want to get married? No. Did I want to listen to any man? I don’t think so. And if marriage was out, then I certainly didn’t advocate the tradition of taking the man’s last name after getting married. I was a mess. For years, I spoke out against anything and everything I thought oppressed women, and I made sure people heard me.
About three years ago, things started to change. As I started to understand who I was as a person, my ideas started to change. I found out that I did want to get married (although it can wait a few years), that maybe having children wasn’t so bad, that being a housewife doesn’t make you a slave to your husband (I would do it if my future husband made enough money), and that being a feminist doesn’t mean you have to get belligerent every time someone makes a negative remark about a woman. That doesn’t make you a feminist, it makes you annoying.
While my beliefs have drastically changed over the past few years, I still consider myself a feminist. I believe that women should have the choice to go out and work, and if they do, they deserve equal pay. I also believe that if there was to be another draft, it should include women (after all, ‘feminists’ can’t pick and choose what they want to be equal in), and that if a woman belittles a man for the sake of feminism, then that makes her just as bad as any chauvinistic man. However, I’m realistic: I think that there are a few things that men can do better than women and women can do better than men; everyone has their niches. I think that makes me an empowered woman, as I understand my strengths but don’t delude myself into thinking I don’t have any weaknesses.
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