Feminism for all.

The feminist movement has been becoming more popular over the last decade, but the negative stereotype of who can be a feminist, and what a feminist is still is around, even at ETHS.

“We definitely had a few boys that came to the meetings at the beginning of the year,”  sponsor of Girl Up Qamile Sulejmani says.

Girl Up is a feminist club at ETHS that started last year. While the club is mainly focused on women’s issues, it brings the discussion of feminism to all of ETHS.

Feminism is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as the theory of the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes, and as an organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests. While ETHS has a very liberal student body, there are still some guys who might not feel as if they are welcome or comfortable with feminism.

One of the reasons that this is happening is because the discussion around feminism has been centered, and spoken about, mostly by girls.

“They might not want to talk about feminism because they think are helping a cause they are not in any way influenced by,”  junior Ensar Uzicanin explains.

It is these stereotypes which inhibit some guys from becoming feminists. The idea that guys don’t get anything out of feminism is not true. According to The Atlantic, feminism is trying to break down those exact barriers that teach men that being feminine is inferior in some way and teach them the “men don’t cry” mentality is restricting.

A recent Washington Post poll shows that only 33% of men in the United States consider themselves feminists or strong feminists, opposed to the 60% of women with the same beliefs. But according to some feminists, this can change.

“They just need to be more informed about the movement,” sophomore Erin Hunter says.

Signs of change are being seen. When “this is what a feminist looks like” t-shirts were being handed out, many male teachers and students wore them with pride.

ETHS guys can support the feminist movement by simply just talking about the topic of feminism more. The more informed that people are about feminism, the more support the movement gets. Guys can also support feminism by supporting student protests like the Dress Code Protest that happened on Sept. 2.

As feminism is re-entering pop-culture, and as more people are taking action because of it, students have become more involved. And as that happens, male students are becoming informed about the part that they can play in the movement that is catching the attention of all students.