Earlier this year, Always released a commercial addressing the statement “like a girl.” They asked different women, men, young girls and boys what it meant to do something “like a girl.” Throwing like a girl or running like a girl. Everyone responded by doing something weak and half-heartedly, except for the young girls.

It seemed the young girls did not have ideas in their heads from others or the media about what it means to do something “like a girl.”

When told to run like a girl or fight like a girl, the young girls proudly ran as fast as they could and punched as hard as they could.

So how come we, as women, blow off the statement “Oh, you’re smart… for a woman.” “Oh, you’re strong… for a woman?”

I think society has put it into our heads that we are not as strong as men and not equal so when a statement like the above is said, we don’t flinch. We accept it.

We shouldn’t accept it.

Take it as an insult. Get mad. You are a woman. You are a human being. We are equals and it’ll take an uprising to change people’s minds about gender equality.

We are strong because we worked hard to get there. We are intelligent because we have brains in our heads.

In the same way that women are thought of as the weaker sex, men are taught to be strong and not show emotion, making them the “dominant” sex.

While feminism is seen by many as the man-hating, get rid of all men ideology, it is not that at all (although “Tumblr feminism” might suggest otherwise). Feminism is defined in Webster as “the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.”

So as a human being how can you believe that everyone should not be equal? How can you not be a feminist?

In order to stop oppression and gain equality, people need to stop projecting gender roles onto others and everyone must stop using “like a girl”, “feminist” and “for a woman” as an insult.