Justifying my existence is exhausting.

In the quest of seeing a better world, my idealist, driven and fervor-laden self is usually sharing my ideas of equality with others. Most of these others are women. Almost all of these women are professionally working women who face inequality, disparity and discrimination daily. All of them have complained about that. But there is a percentage of them who think that feminism isn’t a relevant concept.

For some reason feminism has come to be associated with brashness, a disregard to others’ opinion , an indifference to societal norms and an open rebellion to men.

When actually feminism is about humanity, compassion, love for each other and equality among genders.

Feminism has been portrayed as organized crime by some people when it’s actually an ideology accepted and practiced by many marginalized and empowered sects of our society. It’s not limited to the affluent, the powerful, the cisgender heterosexuals and the educated.

Feminism is also not about men. That’s the biggest misconception that some people have about it. It’s about women, yes, but it’s not about men. That concept alone undermines our work for empowerment.

Why are men discussed when feminism is discussed? Because women see the bar for men and then see the bar for themselves. Then they take into account the inequality and wonder why it exists. So that’s why men are mentioned.

We shouldn’t have associated #metoo to feminism because I would think that ALL humans would object to cruelty. All of us would condemn rape. All of us would hold offenders accountable. But no! There are #metoo memes and stand-up comedy about it. It has been made into something trivial, comical and entertaining. #metoo was started to focus on the offender and identify the offense. Instead it became about isolating the victim and casting aspersions on them.

But because we continue to make rape about the victim, we continue to increase the stigma to speaking up. We continue to stone people into silence by setting a norm. Before #metoo started, patriarchy was conveniently running #dontreport. Of course #metoo has been an inconvenience and sullies the reputable name of patriarchy.

But despite all this, despite every atrocity that misogyny and patriarchy unload on women and children and transgenders, there are some people who recommend having a “dialogue” with men for our rights? Why? Why do I have to justify my existence to men? Why do I have to ask men to allow me to live and breathe and enjoy my life? Why? They think that feminism has taken away the “camaraderie” between the genders. That it has created a “rift”. That it has caused a “distance”.

Dear empowered and privileged women! Patriarchy created the rift. Patriarchy killed the camaraderie. Patriarchy took away the oneness. Feminism didn’t do that. Feminism works to restore that.