I’ve been thinking a lot about the way I am perceived by others, as any 23-year-old woman would.
My brain wonders a lot of the time which sides of me people see. I wonder if they are the sides of me that I also see, or if the rest of the world has their own preconceived notion of who I am. I wonder if people see me as the woman I see myself.

Last week, we had a conversation in the office regarding our experiences as young adult women. These thoughts have been on my mind for the last few days, and I’ve come here to share them with you.

Society has taught women for ages to accept the way we are treated, to look pretty, to be gentle and soft-spoken. We are expected to behave a certain way. We are expected to dress, act, live in a way that must be conducive to the gender stereotypes that society has created for us. Women are expected to comply.

I won’t let society’s expectations of me determine who I am and who I am meant to be.

Reigning at an inch above five feet, I am small. I am small, but I have so much to say. So much that you need to hear.
I am compelled to tell other women (that I love and care for) how much they mean to the world. I need you to know that you do not have to conform to the standards that the world has set for us. You do not need to keep quiet. Speak your mind. Dream the biggest dreams possible. Be brave. Be kind.
As a woman, you have the world at your fingertips. You have the ability to make the world a wonderful and gracious place.

Take a look at these incredible women (and men, too!) breaking the stereotype, fighting for their rights and for the rights of women, and people, everywhere.

It’s easy for me to sit here and tell you to go out there and change the world. It’s easy to want to change the world.
However, it’s hard to actually do it. It’s hard to be a world-changer as a 23 year-old woman from a uniform town, not knowing what the whole world outside of your bubble looks like. I am trying to learn what I can about the world outside of my bubble. My inquisitive side is asking questions. I am taking steps to educate myself and others about things the rest of the world doesn’t want to talk about.

So take a minute right now- breathe in and breathe out. Think of the ways you will be able to make this world a better place. Think before you react. Let a little bit of that fiery spirit into your life and be the world-changing woman that I know you are.

Disclaimer: the idea for this post did not emerge out of the resent that fuels my opinion that men’s deodorant is being developed better than women’s deodorant.
Probably.

Isn’t this the truth?! When I finally started to love who I am, I felt bad for those who could not simply be happy for me or with me. Hate is such a useless emotion or trait to have in my opinion. I think we should be lifting each other more, rather than putting others down.

<3 Torry

This former NFL player believes that sexism is the root cause of homophobia. Wade Davis is the executive Director of You Can Play (an organization that promotes equality in sports) and an ambassador for HeForShe.

Wade Davis came out as gay in 2012, several years after he retired from professional sports, in 2003.

Recently Davis touched on a topic that I have always been passionate about – the idea that sexism plays a role in the cultural and social perception of sexuality.

According to Davis, men do not hold each other accountable for their actions; we were conditioned to believe that there is a lesser gender class and as men, we were taught to believe that listening to women makes us inferior.

Like Davis, I strongly believe in gender equality; I strongly oppose to gender roles and stereotypes and I believe that once we begin to treat each other equally, regardless of gender, we will abandon the archaic ideology that gender and sexuality are binary and anything in between is a travesty.

We live in a very hyper-masculine society and the subject of gender and sexuality is often scorned; in some cases we either deny that there is a sexism issue or we condemn any anti-conservative/patriarchal view of the family.

Why am I a feminist?

For a start, I believe that we are all equal, there is no inferior or superior gender and we are therefore all entitled to social, political and economic equality.
In addition, I believe that gender-socialization is a code word for discrimination by gender and sexuality.

Once we begin to view each other differently, we create a divide and that ‘divide’ is used to subjugate certain groups of people that extensively ranks us by facets such as gender and sexuality.

Sexism is a menace to our humanity! Feminism is not about any one gender; and its not just about two genders, it is about all us being equals, wherever along the gender spectrum we belong.

Despite the cold, spring is here! This is my impression of the season of spring.

It portrays the typical symbols of this wonderful season:
The bright yellow sunshine
The chirping birds near and far… chittering and chatting
The smell of the first cut green grass
And Spring, as we know it, the season of love and warmth.

-Kevin

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke