A Culture of Female Victimhood

This is a man's, a man's, a man's world. The famed lyrics from James Brown echo with today's headlines and feminist chants about the wage gap and catcalling, among other issues which tell women they're victims in today's society.

I grew up in a household in the United States where I was taught that even though people don't start off equally in life, you should have an equal opportunity to succeed. This became especially clear when my father went from having a low-income job as a lifeguard, to an executive position at one of the largest oil industry companies in the world, simply through the power of higher education. I was taught that no matter where I come from, hard work will pay off.

This year, I completed my first year at college in a top liberal arts university. I found myself repeatedly being told that I had somehow worked harder to be where I am today simply because of my sex. Somehow, my gender had determined that I had suffered more in life than any man in that classroom to be where I am today. After research, I realized that the statistics in the United States proved to show the opposite of what I was being told: men were the new minority at college. According to the Atlantic, women account for more than 56 percent of college students nationwide, meaning that fewer men are enrolled in college than women in the United States.

Even though I was being told that I was under constant oppression by society, I didn't really feel like I was. I felt like I had gotten equal opportunity as all the males in my life, and while catcalling and body objectification did affect me, I didn't feel like it was enough of an impediment to ever disrupt my capacity to succeed in life. I never felt like any man had more rights than me, and eventually, I realized that under U.S. law, they simply don't. I have yet to find a single political right in the United States which is granted to men and not women.

The problem that I found with being told that I was a victim was that the real female victims were being meshed with women who actually had equal treatment as men. According to the World Policy Analysis Center, 93 countries still legally allow women under the age of 18 to marry with parental consent, and according to the Human Rights Watch, 85 percent of women in Afghanistan admit to experiencing some form of domestic violence.

Please, don't misunderstand or misquote me: women and men are not equal. All around the world, women have far higher domestic abuse and rape rates than men. Gender disparities do exist, and it is crucial that we give women who are victims of oppression the voice they deserve to speak out against injustice. It is unfair, however, to merge them into a group with women who do have equal rights as men.

I am not a victim of society, and I am grateful as well as conscious of the opportunities I have.