A month ago, I attended the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., which I also happen to call home. I remember my mother and I feeling a sort of uncertainty about whether we wanted to participate because we didn’t really identify as feminist types. But really, what is a feminist? In order to be a feminist you don’t need to explicitly be a woman and only support rights for women. A feminist is anyone who believes in equal rights for everyone, and everyone being allowed to do and say what they want. There is such a pressure to pick a side and pick what you stand for. But, why not stand for everything? Pick and choose what you want to be an ally for—just because you don’t side with typical feminist thought, that doesn’t make you any less of a woman.
I believe that feminism should be accessible to everyone. People are so stuck on this idea that it has to be one thing and stay like that. I think there needs to be a way to make it something for everyone. In this time of uncertainty, we should all come together as one group of people, not feminists and equality advocates. We should come together because truly we all share the same ideas and beliefs, we’ve just spent too much time trying to categorize and define those beliefs.
Personally, I don’t identify as a feminist, but does that make me any less equal to my other friends? No, it doesn’t. I still believe that men and women should have equal pay and that women should have every right to their body. I just don’t feel the need to categorize and identify with the label. We live in a society that is so obsessed with putting a label on anything and everything. I’m here to say that it’s okay to disengage from identification. It’s alright to have your own set of beliefs but not put a label on those beliefs.
In the end, we really should all just be coming together and supporting each other through love and the power of community.