WOMEN

"Yes All Women because the odds of being attacked by a shark are 1 in 3,748,067, while a woman's odds of being raped are 1 in 6. Yet fear of sharks is seen as rational while being cautious of men is seen as misandry." 

I think finding that quote was the first time I put into perspective the fierce adversity women face on a daily basis. While the accuracy of this data can be called into question, the point still stands: sexual assault happens in this country at an alarming rate. But perhaps alarming is too gentle of a word because every 98 seconds, someone in the United States is sexually assaulted.

At school, I have attended several meetings held by an organization on campus to discuss and  prevent sexual assault in our Greek Community. We talk about everything from rape culture on college campuses to how to best support someone who needs help. At one of our gatherings, someone brought up the fact that most statistics about assault focus on the amount of people who are assaulted, not on the amount of people who do the assaulting. Can you imagine if proper time was taken to find out just how many individuals in our own schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces actually are perpetrators, and how that would change how we deal with the issue? The era of victim-blaming is slowly, slowly fading but even facts like "11.2% of college students experience rape or sexual assault," steer the focus to those affected, taking blame and fault away from those who have committed the assault in the first place.

But the purpose of this post is not to talk about disheartening facts, it is to talk about the amazing women's movement that is taking place right now in this country despite the odds against us. It is to talk about the pride that I felt when my best friends attended women's marches all across the nation, when 'The Silence Breakers' were named Time Magazine's Person of the Year in 2017, when the #metoo social media movement exposed men in power and gave means to women everywhere to speak up, when Oprah gave an earth-shattering speech at the Golden Globes empowering young girls everywhere, when I was brought to tears by female and male celebrities alike at that same event wearing black in solidarity with sexual assault victims. Women are incredible, powerful creatures who are rising out of the ashes and demanding to be taken seriously. The women in my life are inspiring and mighty, so the least I can do is write a mediocre blog post about them.

Over winter break I was shopping online, as one does, and showed my mother a mug that read 'feminist,' all caps, in thick, black, bold letters. She put her hands on mine and said "honey, are you a feminist?" Blinking, a little taken aback by the concerned tone in her voice, I responded, "well aren't you?" I figured that after listening to all my women-empowerment rants and surely through watching the aftermath of the election, of all people, my mom would consider herself a feminist too. But to my surprise, she said no.

She explained to me that, while she was definitely pro-women's rights, she didn't consider herself a feminist because she wasn't anti-men. All of her experiences with quote-on-quote 'feminists' had been with either aggressive women's groups or women's groups who lived in communities in the 'wilderness' who 'didn't shave' and wanted nothing to do with men at all.

However that is not what feminism is to me, nor to most of my generation. A feminist is someone who supports gender equality and equal rights for all people. Someone who supports her fellow women rather than tearing them down for petty reasons. Someone who thrives in times when she is put down because of her gender. Someone who knows who she is and isn't afraid to show it. Feminism isn't something to run away from, as a woman it is something to embrace.

My mom's eyes lit up and she said "well then hell yes I'm a feminist!"

This is not to say that men can't be feminists too. The general goal of our feminism is to promote equal treatment of humans, which embraces those rights of the LGBTQ+ community too. One of my closest guy friends in high school is perhaps the biggest feminist I will ever meet.

Someone asked me recently how I became so confident and sure about my emotional and physical boundaries. I told them that I was raised by a strong woman, who in-turn made me a strong woman. Without the loving and supportive parenting that my mother gave me, I honestly don't know how I would have survived many of the things that have been thrown at me in the last few months.

College has served me a vast array of new experiences and roads to navigate now independently. As a result of many of the things I've encountered, I've grown immensely as a young human and am more of a raging feminist than ever before.

So, Yes All Women. Yes to all women everywhere. Here's to changing gender stereotypes and changing rape culture in our country, and to wholeheartedly love and embrace the women in our lives.

A Short List of Incredibly Important Women in my Life

(though this certainly can't come close to naming everyone)

Jennifer Shafer, Amelia and Kim Newett, Eva Newsom, Lea Garn, Lilah Azizadah, Caitlin Kreditor, Paige Mills, Maya Michaelian, Sophia Smith, Lindsay Sheppard, Ciara and Ali O'Modhrain, Martha Sheppard, Coco Mendes, Kim Cantley, Julie Atkinson, Shannon Zimmerman, Ali Wall, Rebecca Bull, Kendall Marshall, Ashley Stewart, Roni Farkash, Megan Elmore, Alex Sjoboen, Ryan Barbee, Anne Carper, Avery Andrews, Shivani Sharma 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sexual-assault-statistics_us_58e24c14e4b0c777f788d24f

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/08/entertainment/oprah-globes-speech-transcript/index.html