Are you a feminist?
I think that no matter what your gender is, people should be treated as equal. If that falls into the category of being a feminist, then I am a feminist. For me, I haven’ t been involved in significant feminist actions, but this is the thing that requires attention.
When did you realize that girls were not equal to boys?
When I was younger, I liked to play games with all the kids in the neighborhood. Guys were always angry about me whenever I won the game. One time I was playing basketball with my friends in Putney, and someone who was playing had a question. I told him that move was illegal, but he then asked another guy who also played basketball the same question again and got the same answer. So I started to question:“ Why does it have to be male to confirm things?”.
How does the idea of feminism personally influence you?
When I was in middle school, guys in my grade were all saying ignorant things. There was a girl who came to my school, and people all started to joke about her because she was a feminist. I started to question these behaviors because she was just speaking her mind and standing up for what she believed. If any men push me to do something like washing dishes, I will stand up and say that’ s not ok because he’ s perpetuating stereotypes.
What challenges do you
“ To me, being a feminist is having pride in being a woman.”
Shyra Jainuddin‘ 19
19 encounter when you present your feminist ideas?
People like to distort the word feminism, and they think feminists believe in getting better treatment than men, but that’ s not what it means. A lot of my friends don’ t realize they are wrong and they are stubborn about it. Being a feminist, everyone will invalidate what I am doing. Girls and guys in my middle school will describe feminists with words like‘ crazy’ and‘ obnoxious.’ They are discouraging my feminist passion, but they don’ t recognize the importance of the drive to stand up. When people try to tear me down, it becomes harder because that’ s exactly what I am trying to battle. Men in this society have certain privileges, so they need to realize that all of us coexist on this planet and understand what prejudice women go through, so we need to reshape the society and change people’ s mindsets.