REFLECTIONS AND MIRRORS

I stand here today to challenge a belief.

 

I stand here today and I will challenge your belief that equality has been reached. I will challenge your belief that you do not need "another feminist" on campus because the short of it is this: you do.

With the enactment of women's suffrage and the passage of the Equal Pay Act, most of America has been lulled into the belief that women have been freed. The mere fact that I—a woman: born, raised, and decided—can apply and fully hope to be accepted into your college is proof that we've moved out of the dark ages of misogyny and into a new era of equality.

 

But let's be real.

 

We haven't.

 

And I know this because over and over, women find that they have to prove themselves to society. Controlled experiments, observational studies, statistics, grades, newspaper reports—every type of dissertation and explanation has been provided to validate the idea that women are just as good as men. Yet, there is always that next article, that next news report that's telling women that they're never going to be good enough. That their only value is found in obeying men. That they should give up major rights like autonomy over their own bodies because men clearly know everything about a woman far better than the woman herself (I mean, if things go wrong, women's bodies have ways to just "shut that whole thing down," right?).

 

And I know that we haven't reached equality because equality means a safe living environment for all—that no one has to walk out on the street and feel immediate fear for being who they are. That regardless of gender, sex, race, or creed, they can feel safe no matter where they are or what they aspire towards. Yet almost all women feel compelled to carry a whole arsenal of weapons to keep sneaking aggressors from attacking and raping them in the dark streets—a concern most men don't have to deal with. I know this because report after report is coming out about how colleges can't handle their rape cases properly. And I know that equality hasn't been reached because going to college should be the highlight of my life. It should be the first four years that I will take off on my own and flower into the woman I always wanted to be, I was always meant to be. But instead, the celebration's been stained by the very real concern that I will be sexually assaulted on campus.

 

And all this? This is why you need a healthy feminist community on campus: to promote and provide a movement dedicated to achieving a safe living environment for all.

 

But there's one thing you need more than a feminist: you need me. Because I will not idly watch as injustices are repeated before me; I will not bystand, I will stand up.

 

So watch me rally others to their feet with a rousing speech or two—or maybe a few hundred as I take the country by storm. Let me set forth article after article in newspapers about the way that the patriarchy doesn't only oppress women but violently limit men from their full potential as well—to the point where some men are driven to suicide because it's not "manly" to express any of their emotions. And if the newspapers don't like that? That's fine: I'll just start my own. The world needs valiant queens, after all, not easily-discouraged pawns—especially when it's a world in desperate need of change.

 

But the biggest thing to understand is that feminism isn't only for women: it's a unifying force for all activists looking to improve the world. Because to succeed, we must learn to come together, not work against each other. To succeed, we must stand strong together—else find ourselves falling apart alone.