I am one of those people that spend a large portion of their life:

a) Reading comments on videos, photos etc.
b) Going on Wikipedia adventures.
c) Searching random names on Google.

It was when I was scrolling through the thousands of comments on a post (loosely) about victim-blaming when I noticed one guy’s contribution (I’m good at spotting the ignorant ones). What he said was something along the lines of “Anyone who thinks women are oppressed in modern society has some research to do.” and “If you support Christianity you support anti-gay, anti-choice and anti-science beliefs”.*

*I was actually impressed that someone other than me could go so off-topic.

I’m going to address the oppression comment in this post, just so all you anti-christianity folks can be prepared for the next one.

Aren’t I nice?

I’m going to assume that ‘modern society’ only refers to the women that he encounters on a day-to-day basis because, if not, then he must not know about the 62 million girls around the world not in school, the 100 million girls estimated to become child brides over the next 10 years, or that 70% of the world’s poorest people are female.

And he just happened to forget that 1 in 5 women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in their lifetime, that the average age of a woman entering prostitution is 13, or that women earn less than 10% of the world’s wages but do more than two thirds of the work. Or maybe he didn’t forget, and he has a different definition of oppression to me.

How’s that for ‘research’?

So the next time you hear someone say that feminism is unnecessary, or that there’s no such thing as gender inequality, you can Shut. That. Down. #wambamthankyoumam

Another argument that seems to pop up a lot within the anti-feminist community (the slightly more knowledgeable but still ignorant ones) is that how can white, middle class girls complain about injustice when so much worse things are happening in other countries? This argument gets to me. Not only because it puts feminism in a bad light, but also because to people who don’t argue on either side of this unending war (between feminists and the people who make the ant-feminist memes), it is a valid point.

And I agree, partially. I agree that girls like me, and most of my friends, shouldn’t be so absorbed by our daily grievances that we forget what is happening all over the world. But I absolutely don’t think that justifies not fighting at all. Personally, I don’t just argue with people who make sexist comments because they annoy me, but to also make a point. That sounds petty but if we let the little, everyday things slide by (like being called bossy for wanting to be heard in a discussion in class, or a guy putting his hand up your skirt etc.) what example does that set to anyone, anywhere?

Until sexism becomes a thing of the past, until teachers stop being surprised when I tell them I either want to enter medicine or politics, and until the guys in my class stop thinking their opinion is worth more than mine, I won’t stop fighting.