I am a woman and I am angry. Four years of "Mayhem" have discussed issues including the assault on Roe v. Wade, the need to make the abortion pill accessible, and the portrayal of women in fashion magazines. Even in the year 2003, women have plenty to be angry about.But most women aren't angry.

At the dawn of the 21st Century, a woman earns on average 73 cents to the dollar that a man receives for the same work. At the same time, our President is waging an assault on women's bodies: Day by day, his initiatives erode sex education, limit family planning and threaten the most sacred of women's rights - the right to choose to have an abortion.

The ability of women to make the most of their lives is directly dependent on their ability to control their own bodies. Measures whose effect is to make women unwitting vessels of reproduction threaten the well-being of women. We cannot afford to take our reproductive rights for granted.

As a group, we are utterly unconcerned about our still second-class status. Moreover, complacent in our relative comfort, we are ungrateful to women who have enabled our most basic rights. To generations of women - and specifically to feminists - we owe rights we now take for granted. It is by their sweat that we can vote, own property, use contraceptives, work outside the home, wear pants, divorce and choose when and with whom we engage in sexual activity.

Young women reject feminism as a movement that has seen its heyday. Feminists are seen as "butch," as militant. In an action women confuse as self-empowering, and under the misguided notion that there is nothing left to achieve, many make a point to vocally reject feminism. After all, we can vote, we can have a legal abortion and we can hold the same jobs as men. "Feminism" has become outdated - it is an outmoded term to describe a movement that was once useful, but no longer necessary. It has been taken over by radicalism, even militancy.

My sister told me a few years back that she didn't want to be labeled a "feminist" - that she considered herself an "equalist." I thought for a moment, "That sounds nice, utopian even." But, while sheltering women's rights under the same umbrella as gay rights and civil rights sounds like the Liberal ideal, its effect is counterproductive.

This umbrella renders invisible the challenges that women face and ignores that oppression of women is rooted in a different history and enabled by different forces than are the oppression of other groups. This is not to ignore or deny that social movements need to be aware of each other. Rather, it is essential that they recognize that they intertwine. There is no one female experience: Obviously, a heterosexual Latina's experience is not the same as that of a white lesbian.

But, women who believe they are freeing themselves by turning away from the harshest "f-word," commit a two-fold sin. First, they demoralize those who are working to improve the living conditions of all women. These modern heroines have fought to make insurance plans - many of which cover Viagra - pay for the pill as well. Women who reject "feminism" are happy to reap the benefits of others' strife, and even happier to ignore that effort.

It is essential that women redefine "feminism" - that we work together to take back the term. Women who disdainfully dismiss feminism as "bra-burning" perpetuate that stereotype. Very few women conform to this "extreme," yet sadly it remains the most common perception. Furthermore, it is absurd that advocating women's rights is considered radical. That women deserve equal social, economic and political rights and opportunities ought to be obvious.

I am angry, therefore I am a feminist. I will not stand to be pigeon-holed and stereotyped. Do not label me. I will not be called unfriendly and unfeminine. I will not be a cartoon - a caricature of what you think I ought to be. I willnot waste time defending my own femininity - whatever that means anyway. It is my femininity - I will not define it for or defend it to others. Instead, I will stand up for it.

I am a woman, I am angry, and I am asking you to stand up and be angry as well. "Feminism" is what we make it - so lets redefine the term for the 21st Century. Let's stand up for ourselves and boldy refuse to let stereotypes scare us away from enacting real social change.
- Michaela May '03 has submitted her final column to the Justice.