While casually chatting about women’s rights at my lunch table, I was shocked when my best friend told me that she hated feminists.  And when I asked her why, she told me all the feminists she knows are the weirdest people she knows.

So I went home and searched “feminism” on Google, and, to my shock, instead of finding results about equality and women’s suffrage, I found more results about declining to shave or wear bras.  This is a gross dereliction of what feminism should be.  Feminism is about equality for women.  It is about justice for every gender.  The idea of feminism should conjure up an image of Susan B. Anthony, who refused to be let out of jail just because she was a woman.  There is a beauty in sacrificing your personal interests for equality that feminism ought to embody.

Instead, many feminists today seem to think feminism is condemning anything that can be perceived as feminine.  Women who believe in feminism are not allowed to shave, wear bras, let men hold doors open for them, and much more.  Today’s feminism seems to constrict females almost as much as the blatant sexism of the eighteenth century.

I do not blame my friend for hating feminism.  I blame the feminists who have turned something as beautiful as equality into a monstrosity of hate and bias against an entire gender.  No, women should not feel forced to act “feminine.”  But they should not be condemned for choosing to do so.