Purple

In earlier years feminism used to look like this. Women had to fight for the right to vote, the right to get education and have the same opportunities as men. They had to fight against being owned by they're husbands. Today, the majority of world's countries have gained these basic human rights. And it's great. It's lovely and wonderful. Women can have jobs and get paid. They can wear jeans and drive cars. Of course it isn't this perfect all over the world. We still need to work on this. I'm doing a so called "gender studies" course at school, which mainly consists of arguing about the equality of men and women. I've always been aware of the importance of equal rights and had a pretty clear idea of my stand in all this. But it wasn't that big of a deal to me. Now, since I started this course it's been on my mind almost constantly. I've started noticing things that I didn't notice before. I feel that I have so much to say. The world hasn't been in such a good state for long so we still have a few cavemen around. Both male and female. People still get treated differently depending on gender. The other day we were talking about children and how society divides them into boys and girls. I don't like it. I think the main aim today is to get rid of those gender stereotypes. I think that's what the next step of feminism is about. Or should be about. It's about fighting for everyone's rights to do whatever they want. Men's as well as women's. Women don't need to burn their bras. They shouldn't have bought them in the first place if they don't want to wear them. Because they can be without them.

I'm the only girl out of three siblings. Which means the other two, my brothers, are males. We are similar in some ways because we are related. We also look similar because we're all human. We've all got two arms and two legs, one nose, ten toes, lungs and blood and guts. But we are also different from each other in multiple ways because of our genders. For most normally functioning people it won't take long to realize that we are of two different genders. I have boobs. They don't. Their voice is darker than mine and they have a lot more facial hair. They are severely taller and more masculine than me. They produce a lot more testosterone than me. And they can't have babies inside them for nine months. It also shouldn't be too hard to notice a difference between all three of us because we are individuals. My older brother is slim and has very dark hair. My younger brother's got the biggest hands and feet ever. I'm the only one with glasses. My older brother loves football. My younger brother prefers basketball. I just don't prefer sports to anything else, ever.

I was quite a "girly-girl" when I was younger. I liked looking nice and wanted to be a princess. I liked my Barbie-dolls. I liked drawing and writing stories. But I also had a blue tractor and a hammer like my dad. I loved pirates. My favorite color was definitely not pink. My younger brother on the other hand liked pink at one point. And my older brother had a doll as a baby. My little baby brother also liked cars and the older one loved his legos more than anything. I can't see anything wrong with us today. We aren't any different from other people. I don't want to say that we were normal, because what is normal and what's not? We are just our own individual selves. If anything, our freedom to choose our own paths has made us happier and more open to new things than we otherwise would have been.

I think it's ridiculous to try to prove that men and women are exactly the same. We're not. I admit that I chose social studies at school rather than biology and all that stuff. So I'm not going to play all smart and pretend I know anything about the human body. But I did learn about the birds and the bees. And I know the genders have different types of chromosomes in them. There's no way that those differences don't have anything to say. We are divided into men and women. But what's maybe more important is the fact that we are all human. Some men are tiny while some women are masculine. Men can be sensitive just like women can. Women are good drivers just like men. We are individuals and there is a reason for why we should have equal rights and the same opportunities. There's no real way to tell if the differences between the genders exist mainly because of biological features or because of society. The only thing that's sure to me is that there's no reason to underline those differences. If girls want to wear pink clothes and play with dolls and become princesses and stay-home mothers when they grow up, it's fine. In fact it's wonderful. If boys choose to dress in blue and become truck drivers and spacemen, they should definitely do that. Just like girls who want to be truck drivers and boys who want to wear pink can do that too. There shouldn't be sertain "girl-things" and "boy-things". Everything should just be in one big pile of stuff and then we can all choose what we like the most. Of course, no one is saying that people aren't allowed to choose what they like, but it's hard to follow that when everything is divided into groups that are obviously meant for a specific gender. Grown-ups should be strong enough to not let that control them. But children are much more fragile and they just follow what they see around them. This might not matter a lot to many people, but it does affect some people in a bad way. And it shouldn't be like that. If our society wouldn't divide everything into gender groups but have it all together in a gender-neutral group - yet, the boys would still choose the blue stuff and the girls would choose the pink stuff, then it would be alright. Maybe we are just that different in reality. But we can't know the truth unless things change.   

I am a woman. I'm sensitive and fragile at times. I'm romantic. But I'm not dramatic and I don't scream when I watch a horror movie. I own more music by Metallica than Britney Spears. I'm not very strong and therefore maybe not fit for very physical work. But I don't mind getting my hands dirty. I love working in mud and paint. I'm interested in clothes and like to look nice. I love wearing dresses and tights. I even wear up to three tights at the same time when it's cold. I like high heels. They're fun...when you can walk in them. I've got a few pairs of amazing high heels that I use when I know I won't be walking too much. On the other hand I have no sense for make-up and hardly ever bother to put it on. I feel better when my hair looks nice but without having to put in too much work and effort. I love coloring my hair and trying out new things. I've had everything from pretty long hair to very short and "boyish" hair. When I was sixteen I probably had more guy friends than girl friends. I still don't like pink. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I'm excited about choosing whatever I want.

I was in a toystore once. A little girl was looking at halloween costumes with her mother. She pointed at a superhero costume and said: "I want this costume". Her mum said: "No, don't you rather want to be something prettier. Like a princess?". - Am I the only one who thinks the mother was wrong by saying that? Of course, parents want to watch out for their children, and sometimes that means helping them to blend in with the rest of the group. But if everyone does this, things won't change. And that girl obviously didn't want to be a princess. So things have to change in order for her to be able to be who she wants to be.

Even though I say this it doesn't mean I want men and women to be exactly the same. I know we aren't. I even think that makes life and the relationship between males and females a little bit more exciting. I don't want that to change. I like feeling "feminine" in terms of feeling sexy and comfortable with myself. I just don't want to feel like I need to be a sertain way to be appealing to and accepted by other people. That's why I know I'm a feminist.
You don't have to put on a red lipstick. But if you want to you definitely should. Because you can.