Feminism was and currently is a movement established to end sexism, and achieve social economic and political equality among the sexes. It’s a common misconception that feminism is rooted in misandry, or is anti-men by nature and that all actions are motivated by a hatred for men rather than a hatred for the oppression that benefits men systemically and endangers AFAB people. Bell Hooks in Feminism is for Everybody, explains the growth of feminism and its branches over time, it’s impacts on society as well as the blocks that halt progression. In a society heavily influenced by Chrisitianity, it dictates the population’s social perspective on women’s positions in society in relation to men. However, although feminism has an open ended definition which diminishes the clarity surrounding the purpose of the movement, two types of feminism emerged in this reading. One being ‘Reformist feminism’ and ‘Revolutionary feminism’. Revolutionary being the kind that seeks to abolish sexism and the patriarchy, and reformist reflecting male envy or women constantly seeking the position of men in society. Gender equality and nothing more. Reformist feminism was more easily accepted and did provide progressive change within the workforce but not without having some if not more benefits for white supremacy. “These discussions did not trivialize the feminist insistence that “sisterhood is powerful,” they simply emphasized that we could only become sisters in struggle by confronting the ways women – through sex, class, and race – dominated and exploited other women, and created a political plat- form that would address these differences.” (Hooks 3). 

Shavoya Easy mentioned how gender roles impact our life decisions and when we deviate from them we are reprimanded or looked down upon. An experience I had with this was my experience with P.E throughout my entire 6-12th grade years. I wasn’t good at sports but I had an interest in them, however it was quickly obliterated because of how little patience P.E instructors had for young girls in comparison to the boys. We were expected to fail, to fall behind, and because of this kind of sexism, many girls had accepted this role that was given to us unfairly and decided to never participate at all and sometimes frown down upon those that did, but I believe this was due to stereotype threat as well. They were socialized to believe they were incapable of playing sports because of how much our instructors enforced gener roles, even with their behaviors. It wasn’t always verbal sexism but chuckles or eye rolls whenever a girl was picked for a team or whenever she held the ball, or was too afraid to move on the field because of the intense shouting. I specifically remember my teacher during the fitnessgram announcing that push ups were next, and that the girls in the class would go first. Right after he had said “And that won’t take long” not long after he laughed, and the rest of us did nothing but look at each other in collective anger towards what he just implied. Misconceptions about feminism being anti-male arise because challenging gender roles make those who have male privilege (and people who benefit from these roles) feel as though they themselves are being challenged, which brings out the unnecessary animosity towards feminism and feminists.