I started to self-identify as a feminist shortly after my sixteenth birthday. However, I did not realize that I needed feminism until my senior year of high school. During senior year, I constantly received unsolicited advice about how I should live my life. It felt like no one could accept me as I was. Everyone wanted their own ideal version of me. At first, I complied to their requests because I feared rejection.

One day, I realized I was no longer the me I wanted to be. I soon discovered why I need feminism: I want to live my life without the input of others. Feminism became my support system for living my life on my own terms. This is my reason for needing feminism, but everyone will need feminism at some point in their lives regardless of race, gender, nationality, disability, religion and sexual orientation.

Why should ISU students accept feminism? Students should accept feminism because the lack of gender equality affects everyone. We are forced to prepare for our futures in college. We learn the most about ourselves and we face some of our hardest obstacles. Gender inequality should not be one of those obstacles. As a community, we should use feminism to combat gender inequality. Feminism has the power to remove the barriers women face to be successful. Feminism has the power to allow men to be in non-traditional roles without having to face criticism. Most importantly, feminism demands the creation of an accepting community where gender does not determine where a person fits into life.

The Who Needs Feminism photo campaign seeks to remove the negative stereotypes surrounding feminism. It was originally started at Duke University and came to Iowa State through the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center last year.

As the campus organizer for the campaign, it is my job to push the students, faculty, and staff of Iowa State to find their reasons for needing feminism. We, at the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center, want a variety of Iowa Staters to participate. Our diverse campus has 33,341 different reasons for needing feminism. All of these reasons need to be shared. People who take the time to write their “I need feminism because …” statement and take a photo with their reason help demonstrate the range of feminists and their support of it. Additionally, Who Needs Feminism provides one of the few opportunities in life where being explicit about your needs is acceptable. It does not matter if you do not identify as a feminist or do not necessarily believe in feminism, what matters is that participation in the campaign demonstrates that Iowa State wants to create an inclusive community. At its basic core, that is what feminism is about: inclusivity.

So, who needs feminism? Iowa State does. Why do you need it? Come share your reason at the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center.