Feminism, you'll hear over and over, is the simple belief that women are human beings. However, there's complaints that some feminists take this credo too seriously and therefore are a big pain in the patoot, ruining younger feminists' fun, criticizing their pink minis, and trying to rip their makeup out of their trembling and well-manicured hands.

Society is based on the notion that women are things to be used up and discarded. Therefore, while it is possible to work within a framework of society, one has to be very careful as to how one goes about it. Feminism is nothing less than an insurgency in society, disturbing the very framework of our lives. You have to brace yourself for hostility and hatred when you're an avowed feminist. You're disturbing people who've never much thought about women except when those damned women didn't do what they were supposed to.

Women are supposed to keep society running and to absorb all the dirty work and dirty shit that society creates and does. Women are supposed to be incubators and caregivers for mens' children, absorb their sexist violence and sexual assaults, spend all their time working on their appearance so as to not piss off men by being non-decorative, and do all the housework in addition to contributing half a household's income. Furthermore, all the work they do is part of the framework of society, so any deficiency is what's noticed, not the work itself.

Feminism aims to turn all this upside down. Feminism is rebellion against the powerful, resistance against passivity, and a call to action to overturn the comfortable way the world is run----for men and some comfortable women. In a sexist society, there is no way to avoid sexism. Therefore, feminism requires that you analyze every thing and make conscious choices. Feminism isn't about telling women what to do; it's about letting them know that all the things they've been denied are possible. That said, anyone who mouths blatant lies about feminists and calls themselves a feminist needs to be called out. Feminists don't hate men; society hates men, but at least it rewards them for toeing the line. Women get nothing but more labor when they obey----and maybe a card on MOther's and Valentine's Day. Merely calling one's self a feminist does not make one a feminist, any more than calling one's self a millionaire makes one rich.

Being a feminist is not a lightweight thing. It is not feisty or trendy or easy. People hate feminists, and to that end, they tell lies about them. Feminists hate men; feminists have abortions for fun; feminists hate sex; feminists believe women are good and men are bad. All of these things are either oversimplifications or outright falsehoods. It's not feminists who believe all men are rapists and keep women in a state of fear as a result: it's society, which tells men and women both that if a man has an opportunity to rape a woman he should take it. In fact, feminists are resented for shattering the black and white dichotomy between the sexes. If men are human, as feminists believe, then their inhuman acts become more inexcuseable, especially given the power society grants men. If men are human, then the standard for their behavior should be higher. IF men deserve all the power, then they deserve all the responsibilty as well. If men deserve to make mroe money, then they need to labor more and support more children.

The world is sexist. Women make up seventy percent of the world's poor and in most of the world killing a woman is a lesser crime than killing a man----if it's a crime at all. Baby girls are routinely aborted and exposed to die. Cultures demand that womens' bodies be maimed in a way which is designed to cause pain and death, yet men dare to compare circumscion to mutilation. If a man suffers it, it's abuse; if a woman suffers it, she must be lying. Nowhere in the world do women enjoy the freedom to be human beings instead of reviled scapegoats, yet any sign of rebellion in women is seen as punishable by threats of death, rape, and lies about the simplest of things. There is, for example, a whole class of words used on women that are never used on men, unless of course that men is to be feminized: shrill, harpie, nagging, shrewish, hysterical, emotional, bright, comments about physical attractiveness or clothing, comments about parental identity----women are always mothers, but mens' fatherhood is usually second to their employment status-----and casual sexist rumor are all used against women to lock them in their place as women rather than as people.

Feminism is the ugly fight of one half of the human race to survive the abuse heaped on it----or enabled----by the other half. It's war. One half of the human race isn't even recognized as human---they're lesser creatures. If they were to become human, then it would be impossible to pay them less, rape them, abuse them, beat them, mutilate them, heap labor upon them, and finally demand through all that they be ornamental and amusing-----everything to everyone.

You won't be popular as a feminist. You can't prettify its message, make it palatable to those who use and abuse women, or convince people who don't want to be bothered. Feminism is action instead of reaction, movement instead of cultural inertia, and thought instead of rote acceptance. Merely by demanding action it is threatening. Cultures by their nature, once established, tend to roll along until stopped. Feminism is the mechanism that stops a culture in its tracks and changes its direction.

Don't expect to be liked for it. And don't expect to educate people who claim to be looking for information. While feminism is a lot of things, they're all very simple. Start at the bottom of the pyramid and look at the centuries of oppression and excuses and see how those inform today's thought on women. Go to the next level. It all builds on itself. You can't demand to jump ahead when you haven't mastered the source material. Even so, the concept remains simple and threatening: Women have been denied their humanity too long. Women have been the scapegoats of society forever. If this threatens someone or confuses them, ask yourself why. But don't expect it to be easy or popular.