Our generation’s girls have been raised on two keen ideals. The first as the ultimate and wise Spice Girls have taught us is “girl power.” It is simple and short and breathes life into the girls who remember the pigtails and six-inch platform runners fondly. The second is that feminists are man-hating lesbians; one must have an awful haircut and a lack of fashion sense to apply.

Feminism gets a bad rap in the modern age. Many feel like it’s not about equality anymore but one-upping male privilege. When picturing a stereotypical feminist, many get the impression that instead of equal pay, they want better pay. Instead of having the dignity of being looked at as a person and not an object, they want to humiliate and objectify men. I fear because of this many women now shy away from the damning title of feminist. I have lost count of the number of women who will say “I believe in equal rights but I don’t think I’m a feminist” and I’m disappointed to say that I once counted myself amongst them.

Feminism in short, and in the dictionary, is the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men. Feminists want nothing more and nothing less than the same rights that men have. If not, then they’re not really feminists. It’s the same as advocates for gay rights or race relations all over the world. No one likes being different; we didn’t like it in high school and we don’t like it now. We want the exact same opportunities as everyone else.

Women in North America are extraordinarily lucky. We often get the same opportunities as men. We have the vote, which is cool. And in some cases, male dominated fields are now being taken over by women. However, on average women are still making 77 cents to every dollar a man makes. In our own backyard, there are far more violent crimes against women than men. Across the globe, the majority of children without access to education are girls. At least one in three women are beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in their lifetime. In some places women are not allowed to own property. Honour killings, genital mutilation and sex trafficking are real dangers that many women still face to this day.

These are not just women’s issues — they are human rights issues. They are world problems that affect everybody and should be fought against.

Approximately a century ago, our amazing sisters laid everything on the line just to have the right to vote. They suffered through hunger strikes and subsequent brutal force-feedings at the hands of jailers.They did this just to have the right to put an X on a piece of paper, which many people don’t even do anyway. From then on we have won the right to choose what we do with our bodies, what we do for a living and how we spend our lives in general.

Should we suck the injustice up because we’re the lucky women who only have to worry about being paid three quarters of what a man does? No. I’m not going to be happy until I am paid as much as a man, until every little girl has the same access to education that I have. I’m not going to be happy until gay people have the right to marry or in some countries, the right to live. I’m not going to be pleased until every person of every race has the same opportunities. Equality is always worth fighting for.

We should be proud of the amazing things women have accomplished so far. Equality is cool and I’m proud to count myself as a feminist who believes everyone is entitled to the same things. Don’t settle for a second-rate system that tells us some people are better than others, because they’re not and the people who came up with that theory are seriously ill-informed. Girl power is groovy and so is manpower. Empowerment all around is a beautiful thing.

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photo: Jay Morrison/Flickr