Feminism When deciding to take a stand regarding feminism, it is important to define what feminism is in today's society. A feminist is any person, of both genders and any age, who advocates feminism. Feminism is an international movement that is dedicated to equality of sexes and seeks to eliminate discrimination. In my opinion, feminists do not just oppose discrimination of women but also of race, age, sexual orientation, religion, and many other things. Feminists work toward non-violence and the elimination of social and economic injustice.

I consider myself to be a feminist because I believe that I am, and that everybody in this world is, deserving of equal treatment regardless of how they look or what body parts they were born with. I have seen some women who call themselves feminists because they strive to dominate and overpower men. I am not like these women. My feminist beliefs have no origin in the hatred of men but rather are rooted in the hatred of double standards. I have seen women who are pregnant, scared and alone being hassled because they have chosen to abort. Meanwhile, the fathers of these unborn children are safe and comfortable playing video games or drinking with the boys. I am feminist because I find this to be unfair.

According to the psychology self-help book, "Be Your Own Therapist," feminists strive to eliminate social and economic barriers between men and women. The following excerpt shows a genuinely feminist perspective on men and women:

Feminine? Masculine? We might all be happier if the words feminine and masculine were banned. Few, if any of us, fit all the traits evidenced by the majority of our own sex....

(Many women are aggressive and active. Many men hang out in the "non-masculine" side of the brain. Most of us have non-traditional activities / times in our lives.) We all have abilities for intuition, logic, vulnerability, feeling, assertiveness, softness, harshness, competition and nurturing. To label any of these traits as masculine or feminine just causes unhappiness in our society."
Like everything else in the world, feminism has evolved over the past few years. May people conjure up images of angry, protesting women like Bella Abzug or Gloria Steinem when they think of feminists. However, today extremists are not the norm in feminism, nor are some of the past ideas and values that feminists held.

For example, writer Davis Reardon wrote and article called "The Seduction of Feminism," in which he discussed early feminists. According to his article, early feminists condemned artificial contraceptive methods as "unnatural, injurious, and offensive" to women. They also believed that contraceptives would reduce women to a role of being sexual objects for their mates, and that contraceptives would turn wives into little more than prostitutes, always "safe" for husbands to exploit to satisfy their passions.

They particularly feared that the availability of contraceptives would lure even more husbands and sons who were presently chaste into illicit sexual exploits, exposing even more young women to seduction, abuse, and abandonment," he wrote.

Feminism's founding members also condemned abortion, insisting that it was immoral to kill an unborn child.

These two issues are still at the forefront of feminist beliefs today but most feminists have changed their stance on the issues. Contraceptives and abortion are seen as a woman's choice and feminists aim to give women more options.

One of the main reasons that I support feminism is because it bothers me that, even in…