By SHAKIRA MOLET

Ever since Charles Fourier first coined the term “feminism” in 1837, the public’s view on what feminism is has changed drastically. Most people know that feminists strive for equal rights for women, but if you were to ask a group of women if they were feminists, more than you think would say no. Why would women say that they aren’t a feminist if they believe in the same things?

Unfortunately, the Internet might be to blame.

In the 1990s, many viewed feminists has man-hating women who believed women were superior, but those women were not true feminists. In fact, they were mostly likely misandrists. But no matter whether they were or were not true feminists, that is what many believed feminists were.

Fortunately, many began to question what feminism really is, causing significant role models to step up and clear the air on what feminism really is; however, there are still many who don’t understand what feminism is, but still advocate that their misguided views as feminists views on blogs and other outlets. It is because of these rants on Tumblr, Facebook, and other social networking sites that give feminism a bad name.

As a response to the confusion on what feminism really is and what they strive to accomplish with women’s rights, it is our job to shed some light on this subject instead of just leaving it to the misinformed bloggers.