I literally caught myself saying “preach” so many times when reading this piece. Author Lisa Marie Hogeland wrote this article in 1994 but the message is still relevant to this day as more and more young women are refusing feminism’s necessity and importance.

A major reason, Hogeland asserts, that young women fear association with feminism, is because of political reprisal. There is this idea that subscribing to feminism will leave you ousted, leaving you to face inconvenient consequences. “Young women may believe that a feminist identity puts them out of the pool for many men, limits the options of who they might become with a partner, how they might decide to live,” Hogeland says. In my experience I’ve witnessed so many women dismissing micro-aggressions of sexism and misogyny from men (and sometimes even from other women), and I just think to myself for what? What exactly do you, as a woman, get out of excusing anti-women behavior? It’s almost like you’re seeking the approval and validation of men. Kind of like when girls say stuff like “I’m one of the guys,” or “I prefer hanging out with guys because it’s less drama,” or when women simply fat/slut shame their fellow women.

Hogeland sums this up as young women having difficulty taking a personal experience and realizing it as being a political issue.

However, Hogeland does make a great point that fear of feminism is actually rational because feminism, the very idea of challenging systems of oppression of women, is no easy feat. “To stand opposed to your culture, to be critical of institutions, behaviors, discourses –when it is so clearly not in your immediate interest to do so –asks a lot of a young person, of any person.” I identify as a feminist and I can honestly say this is true. But in the same breath, feminism is rewarding – it’s uplifting, freeing, and gratifying. “When we do our best work in selling feminism to the unconverted, we make clear not only its necessity, but also its pleasures: the joys of intellectual and political work, the moral power of living in consequences, the surprises of coalition, the rewards of doing what is difficult.”