“The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.” That’s the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of feminism.

It seems, however, that many people at Miami High have their own ideas of feminism. Junior Laura Aleu said it was a women’s rights movement.

The service VP of Interact Wendy Gomez said feminism is about, “Embracing your feminine side.” She’s not wrong, but that’s only a small fragment of what feminism is.

A lot of people get confused with feminism, feminists, and radical feminists. Feminism is an amazing thing that benefits everyone. Feminists are good people that understand gender equality; even men can be feminists.

Some people are against feminism, yet somehow still believe in equality. This occurs when people are misinformed. One junior male is in favor of equality between sexes, but didn’t believe both genders were equal due to the difference in hormones, which, to me, have nothing to do with someone getting the same equal opportunity as you.

Others contradicted themselves by saying feminism is bad but also claiming they believed in equality. Senior Ana Garcia says she believes in equality because she wants to have the same options as a man, but does but not believe in feminism because she’s not an extremist.

This misunderstanding could be the result of what people see in the media. Radical feminists who post such things as, “Let’s drink male tears,” on Tumblr often taint the goodness of feminism. Radical feminists take feminism and twist it into something it’s far from.

Some people point out that though feminism claims to strive for equality, the feminist movement really isn’t equal. Theater teacher Ms. Brooks said, “Often times it feels like there’s a lack of equality in feminism due to the lack of representation of People of Color (POC) in the feminist movement.”

I do see that she has a point. Most of the feminist icons I’ve seen such as Tina Fey, Emma Watson, Taylor Swift, and Lena Dunham are white. I do believe that there should be a bigger representation of POC to show how much bigger and diverse the feminist community is.