Okay, just to let y’all know, this year I am taking a Women and Gender Studies course.  Surprisingly, I actually enjoy it.  I know, I know: feminists are bra-burning, man-hating, lesbians.  Well actually, they’re not (not all of them anyway).  Feminism is and feminists are – in my opinion- often misunderstood and misinterpreted.  For example, when I told my boyfriend that I thought I was a feminist after taking this course, one of the first things he said to me was, “But you can’t be.  You don’t hate men.”  Way to believe the stereotypes, Michael.

Anyway, there are some people that perpetuate the whole “feminists are bad” mentality, or turn simple things that really are not about feminism into big debates full of big words and foul language.  

There are a few people on campus who insist on turning Facebook posts into heated discussions about feminism and how girls aren’t entitled to say thank you after a man holds the door for them and how the man didn’t have to hold the door open anyway, because we are strong, independent women who can open our own door damn it! *takes a deep breath* of course that’s a purely… mostly hypothetical example… yeah.

Honestly, even if I am a feminist, people holding the door open for you is NICE.  It is so nice, especially in this day and age where people are too wired into their iPods and/or phones to pay any attention to other people.  Maybe it just goes to show that chivalry isn’t dead, which is a-okay with me!  And actually, I feel like those girls should say thank you, what were they raised in, a barn?  Most people are raised to say thank you from such an early age, it was practically their first word.

There’s a difference between standing up for equality for everyone, and holding the door open for people and saying thank you when someone else does it.  I hold the door open for people all the time!  Men, women, disabled, ethnic, you name it.  Couldn’t you say I’m treating the people I open the door for equally?  I’m sure the men that open doors for women open them for other people too; I’ve seen a few of them do it actually.

I think it’s silly to imply that holding the door for a women is anti-feminist, it’s called being polite.  Try it sometime?  It actually feels pretty good.