Feminism is cool.

Okay, maybe ‘hating’ is a strong word. Just go with it.

All my life I have been surrounded by men who told me that being a women made me weak, inferior, and even less “cool” than them. And I believed it. I spent my whole childhood trying to keep up with the boys. I was constantly yearning for male validation because that is what they made me think mattered the most. This translated into older me thinking my femininity was something to be was something to be ashamed of rather than celebrated. I ended up not wanting to explore feminism and what it could mean to me. I thought I would be embarrassed to call my self a feminist. I am proud to say that this has changed. I know this may be weird coming from someone writing a blog about feminism, but this the story of how I became the feminist I am today.

In my life I was always rejecting the idea of feminism any time it was brought up. I now know this was because of one thing: ignorance. I did not know the first thing about feminism. My friends would talk about it here and there but I was never educated on it until I enrolled in this amazing Feminist Blogging class. Honestly, I was almost embarrassed to take the class at first but there was something telling me to take it anyway, and I am sure glad I did.

I thought feminism was just for people who felt very strongly about being independent and speaking out about women’s issues. I did not realize how diverse of a term it actually is. I now realize that feminism is for everybody and that feminism can mean very different things for each and every person. You can make it a huge part of your life or not. There are no rules for feminism. You do not have to be a certain type of person. You do not even have to be a woman.

All of this taught me not to be embarrassed of the word feminism. I have decided to embrace it. I am making it my own. It doesn’t matter what any of the boys in my life make me think. Their toxic masculinity will no longer tell me how to live my life. I am breaking out of my own toxic cycle of believing that to be feminine means to be weak. I do not need to keep up with the boys. Im sticking with the girls now.