I'm writing in response to Francis Sawyer's opinion column on feminism in Thursday's BGNews. I'm glad she raised the issue, but there was one assumption repeated throughout the article that went against everything that she was trying to say. In every definition of feminism mentioned, whether or not Sawyer agreed with it, she insisted again and again that feminists are women. Period.

Well, guess what? I'm a feminist. And yes, I'm pretty sure I have a penis. Sawyer's assumption is perhaps the one thing that keeps most people from being activists, or at least supporters, in matters of prejudice. When you assume that only the injured care about healing their wounds, you create an immediate "Us against Them" mentality. The problem with this is, "They" are almost always more powerful. A lot of people and organizations claim to be "fighting" sexism, racism, or prejudice in general, but the minute you make it a fight, you've already lost. Perhaps one organization on campus realized this when they changed their name from Lesbian And Gay Alliance (LAGA) to the more inclusive Vision. Maybe they realized that there are a lot of people out there who are not lesbian or gay, but nonetheless don't like to see people getting kicked around. Some feminists should learn the same thing about men.

People need to realize that sexism does not originate with men, nor are we immune to its affects. Every woman who sits with her girlfriends picking apart a fashion magazine, or out of deep and genuine concern tells a friend that she had better lose some weight if she wants to meet decent guys, shares the responsibility. And every man who's been ridiculed for playing an instrument other than guitar, or doing theater, or walking out of the middle of any of a dozen situations in our youth that amount to hazings, we all share the burden as well.

Yes, some guys are perfectly happy to sit on top in an Us against Them world. Some women would rather live by their "feminine wiles" than change the system. But for those men and women who just aren't sure how friends or boyfriends would respond to a "feminist," remember, most people don't want to see others hurt or held back, and there is a very accurate term for those who do. They're called jerks.