I think the only proof I will ever need that feminism is still valid comes in the form of men making women feel lesser just for associating themselves with it. In plenty of men there is this disdain at the very mention of the word; they haven’t seen half the movement, they don’t know half the things we stand for, but from the get go of being labelled ‘male’ they have been warned about the word feminism and the women who dare bare it. I’ve meet boys as young as 14 who scoff at me when I say what I am and quasi-intellectual 20 somethings who sneer at the word 'feminism’. In their minds I have declared war in a single word. Yet the sad reality is they have no idea what that word means. When I talk about intersectionality, queer representation and trans rights I’ve been told 'but that’s not feminism’. Yes, it is but it’s a brand of feminism these men are never taught.

Most of the time the men that condemn me end up nodding their head in agreement about the things I say when they listen, but because patriarchy has put this ugliness around the word 'feminist’ no woman wants to speak it out loud and most men roll their eyes. The greatest proof that I need feminism is that the mere suggestion that I as a woman have choose to stand by my fellow woman and support other women in a world with a horrendous and on-going track record of abusing us is somehow unspeakable. The proof that I need feminism lies in the very phenomena that the moment I mention injustice suddenly I am treated like the only person whose noticed and all the gender based suffering through out history disappears; the world’s misogynistic past is wiped clean and the men I talk to could never be convinced that even once has a man been treated more kindly than a woman.