musings of a teenage feminist

I know from personal experience what it's like to be a feminist in a place that has the same amount of tolerance for change and gender equality that a teaspoon can hold. I live in a tiny town that isn't even big enough to be called a town, go to a school where girls are afraid to use the "f word," and by that, I don't mean "fuck." I mean FEMINIST. Around here, the same tired gender stereotypes are alive and well. Women cook, clean, tend to their families, and do whatever their husbands ask of them, and even work on top of all that, my step mom being an example. These same ideas seem to be imprinted in the minds of the teenagers around here too. When I told a few girls at my school that I was a feminist, they looked at me as if I had sprouted another head. They didn't even know what feminism WAS, and if they did, it was obvious they didn't like the idea very much. 

What confuses me is why many teenage girls these days are afraid to call themselves feminists. Some girls even treat the word like something taboo. In a way, I think all women and girls are feminists. We ALL have the power to stand up and fight for our rights as women, and we all have the resources to do so. The problem is that a lot of girls don't want to be seen as "feminazis," as the feminist movement was so fondly called. They don't want to be seen as cold, heartless, man hating, bra burning lesbians, as the feminist stereotype has been these days. My final statement to all those girls out there who think that being a feminist is a bad thing is that you don't have to be an angry man hating lesbian to be a feminist. All you have to do is be strong and empowering, embrace your role as a woman. The women who fought for suffrage in this country and the women who are still fighting all over the world today JUST so they can show their faces in public, and just so they can vote didn't and still aren't doing all of that for nothing. Do us all a favor and stand up, speak out. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "It's unfair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself."