The word feminism is becoming ever more prevalent in our society, but with it accompanies a negative connotation. Why?

The more feminism that pops up in everyday life, the more people start to have an opinion on it. Their opinion is often skewed by the slight knowledge of how they came about the topic. In simple terms: many people wear horse-blinders and earplugs when talking to others about feminism. They find one fact and run with it instead of researching more about the topic.

Whether on Twitter, Facebook, a newspaper or face-to-face debates, people love to argue the idea of feminism. But what does the term actually mean?

The term literally means “the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men.”

A lot of people like to interpret this in their own way, which is perfectly fine; everyone is entitled to their opinion. What is not OK is the way some people go about expressing their opinions in angry ways without doing their research. The image of husband wanting his wife to make him a sandwich and her refusing is a common thought that crosses the mind when people hear about feminists. This image is not an accurate representation of what the feminist movement is trying to accomplish.

Another misconception is that only women can be feminists. This is not true; many men have joined the fight to get women equality. Another common myth is that all feminists are man haters; this is also false. Yes, there are some feminists out there that are strongly against males, but this does not mean that all feminists are. You can’t generalize a group of many people into one stereotype based on a few individuals.

There is also a huge debate on a “Meninist” account being created on Twitter to counteract a feminist account. They post things about the double standards that men feel but never express. For example, they talk about how women can judge men ‘dateable’ or ‘un-dateable’ on their height, but the minute that a guy asks a girl about her weight, all tables have been turned and the men are seen as pigs.

The Meninist account also talks about how women ‘rape’ men’s wallets. Even though in the description on Twitter they say they are “sarcastically fighting the meninist movement,” it is incredibly wrong to joke about rape of either gender. People have still found a way to believe and advocate what they are saying, no matter how jokingly it is portrayed.

I am not here to say whether feminism or meninism is better. I’m just simply stating that knowing your facts before deciding to argue a point is a good idea. I strongly encourage researching the topic and finding many different angles of the argument. There are incredible amounts of papers and websites about the oppression of both and women underneath a patriarchy. It’s up to you to find out the real facts.