All men are created equal, right? Well, where does that leave women? Women have a right to be treated as equals as much as men do. Oh wow, I shouldn’t have said that. God forbid I might be one of those…feminists.

Feminism is often treated as a taboo subject. Men tend to turn up their noses when they hear a woman say that she is a feminist. Sometimes feminists are openly mocked and sneered at.

What is wrong with this picture? Do we really live in a society that is afraid of supporting equal rights? This is the twenty-first century. It’s time for men to get a wakeup call. The times have changed, and there is nothing wrong with wanting equal rights for both sexes.

Being a feminist is not this terrible thing. I know women and men who are very proud to consider themselves feminists. Being a feminist is not the same thing as being sexist. Feminists do not believe that women are better than men, they simply believe that women are equal to men.

For some reason, this is hard for many males to accept in today’s society. I overhear men talking about women as if they are objects all the time.

If you sit with a group of guys in the JC cafeteria, sexist comments are sure to come up. Jokes are made about girls’ appearances and bodies. One of the guys that I sat with at lunch pulled up a picture of the cheerleaders and went through saying things for each girl like “I’d do that one,” and “Eww, not her.”

This is not okay. All the girls in the picture he was looking at have unique personalities and should not be objectified like that. No one should ever be considered an object that can be used for anyone else’s pleasure.

Too often we focus on racial discrimination, and miss what is right under our noses—gender discrimination. It occurs in schools and in the workplace. Women are still getting paid less than men for doing the exact same jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women that work full time earn an average of $713 per week while men working the same amount of time earn an average of $869 per week.

This is exactly why feminism is necessary. Neither sex is superior, therefore men should not be treated like they are. For some reason, this is hard for some men to accept, but they need to “man up” and get over it.

Rachel Amrhein is an Opinion Columnist for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.