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Catcalling, sexual harassment, and the empowerment of women are some things that come to mind on the idea of feminism. This controversial movement and the growing awareness in feminism is an ongoing conflict for all ages, genders, and countries.

The PCC Feminist club is a part of the world’s largest pro-choice student network called “Feminist Campus.” This union utilizes the Choices Leadership Program, Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances and affiliated campus groups in order to help develop leadership, organizing skills, improve their campuses and communities, and connect with a nation-wide feminist movement.

Ever hear things like “DTF”? Or profiled for the way you dress  by someone you’d call a “pig” who’d then tell you, “You’d be prettier if you smiled,” just so that guy can call you a “Femi-Nazi”? We recognize these as words a man would use to objectify women, but despite popular belief, men are also feminists that support the idea of gender equality.

“Feminism isn’t just about women, we want gender equality to be more aware,” club president Raquel Rojo said.

In the Feminist club’s first meeting, a parody video series featuring the fictional adult version of Wednesday from the Addams Family was introduced in two episodes called, “Wednesday vs. Catcallers” and “Wednesday Addams on Planned Parenthood.”

These intelligent and vulgar parody videos featured commonly occurring feminist issues such as sexual harassment and abortion but notably have men defending women against other men. In the video for example, Wednesday Addams is accompanied by intimidating feminist henchmen to confront the catcallers she encountered earlier in the video.

The first video on catcalling demonstrated how women are objectified by disrespectful men, portraying the typical sayings like “DTF” or “You’d be prettier if you smiled.”

The video on Planned Parenthood, a globally known women’s health clinic, portrayed the perception of religious radical group beliefs that abortion is the devil’s work. The heroine of the video, adult Wednesday Addams, supported her defense by actual events such as the Charles Manson and Ted Bundy cases, men who utilized the manipulation of religion to orchestrate psychotic rapes and mass murders.

“The points that were stated in the videos were strong points that usually are not considered, such as how verbal harassment is allowed anywhere unless it’s not private property,” said Rojo.

“Take Back the Night” is an international event in tribute to the murder of a microbiologist, Susan Alexander Speeth, who was stabbed to death walking home alone in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 1975.

The PCC Feminist club participates in this rally or march to spread awareness of sexual, relationship, and domestic violence in all forms revolving around “taking back” the fear of being alone at night.

“I support the ‘Take Back the Night’ event because I believe it’s time to make a difference in how women are seen and treated as. It shouldn’t be a woman’s job to constantly watch her back when she simply wishes to live her life,” said Rojo.

Due to an ongoing scientific debate on where life starts in the first trimester of fertilization, you may have often seen radical religious protestors with signs in front of Planned Parenthood attempting to shame pro-choice beliefs, in some cases labeling them as “murderers” or even “whores.” Planned Parenthood involves themselves with the Feminist club in order to recruit volunteers to become clinic escorts.

Clinic escorts are volunteers who wish to escort women who may potentially have their spirits broken about their decision and to help them look past offensive radical protesters. Planned Parenthood wishes to turn a controversial and bad experience into a positive one and wants to make a real difference in the lives of their patients.

In other parts of the world such as China, feminism seems to be a criminalizing and untolerated practice. In a Los Angeles Times article referring to feminism in China, things such as only men working in the kitchen while the women will be servers and transgender students facing expulsion from school because of their gender traits are mentioned.

Responding to the issue, Xiao Meili, owner of an e-commerce business in China that sells feminist-themed merchandise said, “Feminism is a sensitive topic. No matter what we do, they’ll watch us very closely.”  

“I hate that feminism is not globally recognized and is worse in other countries, I believe the world should abandon this way of thinking women are not equal to men,” Rojo said.

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