Dear women who say they don´t need feminism

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Dear women, who say they don´t need feminism: The world does not revolve around you.

It´s International Women´s Day. I, as a young girl who grew up in rather privileged conditions celebrate this day in honour of all women around the world. I celebrate this day in the name of all the oppressed, the unseen, the unheard.

Yet I don´t need feminism. Not me, specifically. Sure I´ve been in a bunch of situations before, where I have cursed being a girl. I have dreamed about all the crazy stuff I could do that would be accepted by society if I wasn´t a girl. But I don´t need feminism, not as much as many other girls and women around the world do. I am privileged enough, although in other ways.

It was not the first time for me to hear negative thoughts on feminism from a woman, when I heard how a young woman stated, that she didn´t think we needed feminism anymore. It was not the first time for me to hear someone say that, yet it was the first time that I did not react with shock, but with anger.

Said woman stated that she didn´t feel oppressed. That she didn´t feel like she did not have equal rights and chances as men, and that therefore we didn´t need feminism anymore. That we shouldn´t even have a thing like International Women´s Day anymore because, according to her, the war against sexism was won. It was over.

'The world does not revolve around you!' is what I want to scream in the face of girls and women who say things like that. It´s what I want to say to the boys and men I face, who plead men and women already have equal rights.

The world doesn´t revolve around me. I don´t need feminism, but I know and know of enough women that do. Just because I was born in a country that I believe has mostly overcome sexism, that doesn´t mean it´s just gone. That we should stop fighting.

So just because a woman is incredibly lucky and has never faced a situation where her gender disadvantaged her, that doesn´t mean sexism doesn´t exist anymore. Just because your equal rights are protected, that doesn´t mean everyone else's is.

I know of girls who are oppressed and disrespected by their families. I know girls who will probably never leave their family home on their own, but go from having their father rule over their lives to having their husbands do so. I know women who have to abide by what the men in their lives say, have to hold back their opinions, but who are still the kindest and loveliest people. I know girls who will be married off eventually and never have equal opportunities in education. I know of girls who don´t have access to education at all. Of girls, who have nothing at all. And don´t even get me started on all the violence girls and women face every single day.

Just because you are one of the lucky ones, that doesn´t make up for the millions of girls and women who are mistreated, because of their gender.

Every time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women. And every time she ignores what is right in front of her and speaks against feminism we move backwards.

So please: You may not need feminism, but there are enough women out there who do. Keep fighting.

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