My name's Stacey and I'm a feminist.

Whilst flipping through grazia I came across an article on whether feminism still exists, I happily read away, this is a topic I have seen discussed numerous times and the content was the usual argument until I came across a comment from someone in the street, after reading it I put the magazine down and felt the need to write. The 23 year old woman said she's not a feminist because she didn't have feminist parents and her mum never spoke about this kind of thing which is fine, that's quite OK not every parent is engaged in the politics of this world, some parents just don't have the time, others simply aren't interested and there's nothing wrong with that but what this women said next both shocked and left me exasperated. This 23 year old woman then went on to say that 'Sexism is part of every day life;we should learn to deal with it'. Let's just wait a second for this to sink in as I'm still trying to get my head around it.

Ok second over. What this woman is saying is that it's really it's a females problem that sexism exists and we really should just shut up about it and let men carry on degrading women and carry on working for free from November 2nd (this is when the pay gap comes into account). This statement is not only ridiculous but it is disrespectful to every women who has fought to bring equality in the work place and in the home. There are still countries who have it much worse than we do in blighty, places were women are second class citizens, that can get raped and beaten with nothing done but it is up to us to set the bar and represent real feminism. Strong, empowered women who have the ability to make their own choices in life. Want to be concentrate on your career? That's fine. Want to stay at home and be a Mum? That's fine too. Don't want kids, do want kids, want to spend your money on a pair of Monolo's or save it for a rainy day? All fine. Feminism isn't about burning your bra or hating men but it is about standing up for yourself and other women. It's about not accepting sexism and holding people accountable for their actions.

I wonder if that woman would be as willing to make the same statement about racism. Negative discrimination is never right and just because it exsists doesn't mean it's right and not something we should just deal with.