Feminism rages in my family like a fever. Unfortunately the disease only affected one side of the family. The other side voted for Bush. My mother has made documentaries about forgotten women's colleges and now heads the Women's Studies Program at Loyola University Chicago. Her professional and personal choices have shaped my biases from an early age. My outlook on history, politics and my turbulent teenage life is shaped by the undercurrent of feminism. Most of my peers know not to challenge me on the subject of gender equality but there are always some that dare to do so.

Starting high school meant that I had to become acquainted with new people. These new people didn't necessarily know about my feminist ass kicking ways but slowly and surely they learned. One clue might have been my quarterly reading of the feminist magazine BUST, to which I am a subscriber. There is also BITCH but, alas, I have to buy that one at the store. Despite the rather startling names of my reading material, most people do not find me intimidating because I do not try and push my views on them at random. As a junior in high school I am fairly situated and comfortable with myself. It is only when my views are being challenged that I step out and announce my position.

One day in October, my U.S. A.P. class was buzzing with the boring lives of white suburban kids. As the class ended, my friend Cameron rushed through the doors to hand out his "underground" newspaper that he and a friend write together. Trudging through the door I grabbed one, glanced at it, kept talking, stopped, and freaked out. There, in bold face print was the title "Feminism is Evil". My brain skipped a beat and began to race through the words in front of me. Before plunging myself into a deep pot of hatred I flipped the page over to see who had written the article. There, in italics, was Aaron's pen name of Hobbes. Cameron's is Kant. Aren't they witty? Sometimes, sometimes they are witty.

This completely twisted article had several flaws and few insights that shed new light on anything. The first point that Aaron struggled to make was that those t-shirts that exclaim "chicks rule" and "boys are stupid, throw rocks at them" were serious threats to the male gender. I think Aaron needs to consider the last time he was assaulted with rocks or even verbal assaults because of his gender. After reviewing these possibilities, he might want to pick up the latest edition of Playboy or sit back and watch the Miss [note anachronistic title] America pageant. To say something in Aaron's favor, I will admit one thing. Some women do overplay the feminist/ girl power angle. Their downfall occurs when they can't back up their raging ways with intellect, leaving an open door for legitimate critique to enter.

However, I didn't bow down for long because the next claim that Aaron made was just ridiculous! He tried to persuade the impressionable youth at my high school that there are no (yes, as in NOT ANY) movies that deal with young men striving to beat the odds and win. Apparently, all movies that are made only have strong women in them, often beating men to a pulp and coming out on top. How about Mighty Ducks, Three Musketeers or October Sky? Aaron could have at least jogged his memory a little bit longer to come up with these three movies. Well, the next day, I marched right up to Aaron and told him to consider these movies. He stared at me and had the audacity to say "Those have nothing to do with male empowerment"! Well Aaron, the movie Mighty Ducks is all about a lowly hockey team full of males (except the token girl) who go on to win a championship, so besides that major plot line, you are right. Then Aaron told me that I was proving his point by being an argumentative feminist with only one agenda. What the agenda was, he never said. I looked him right in the eye and told him that he, as a white male suburban teenager, probably never had experienced prejudice against him because of his gender or race. Apparently, he had no comeback or sympathetic story of his own to tell.

I then proceeded to share a memory of mine with him. A week earlier, in my gym class, two boys had made bets about a friend's and my ability to get up a climbing wall in gym. One of these boys was Aaron. My female companion and I made it up, never falling off or getting hurt. It is at this point in the story that Aaron exclaimed that he never believed that "us girls" could do it. FYI: Neither Aaron nor his partner made it up to the top of that particular wall.

At the end of Aaron's "well crafted" monologue on the subject of feminism, he ended with an eye popping revelation. He stated that he is more of a feminist than any of his female peers. To him, they are raging lunatics with female domination in mind, while he is the sad little man trying to live in a world where none of these gender issues matter. Feminists work for the betterment of woman and equality. It is in my opinion that no one can call themselves a feminist if in fact they believe that feminism is evil.

Feminism started because women had to fight a war that should have been non- existent. The movement continues today because there are still women in this world that are experiencing the impact of being submissive and considered lesser human beings. Some examples would be the killing of female babies in China and women not being allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.

I am not arguing that women should dominate. I do not know of any government completely run by women but if I did I would condemn that as well. As Chris Kramerae (Ph.D. Communication) said "Feminism is the radical belief that women are human." That's what I yearn for, that's the world I wish to make happen.