These are the requirements to be a feminist: desire for social and economical equality, and political rights advocacy. Anyone can be a feminist and everyone should advocate for equal rights and responsibilities. However, the media today distorts our perception of feminism into that of lunatic misanthropes who burn bras, victimize women, and demonize men. As a result, a negative perception has built up over time. If I were to approach people and inquire if they were feminists, most would reply with a reluctant, resounding, “No!” Why? Do they not want gender equality? Feminism, transformed into a vile belief reserved for a small minority, has unfortunately become a stigma to be avoided. The recent resurgence of feminism parallels the rise of women taking control of their sexuality and rights, from which anti-feminism has burgeoned, stemming the growing tide of female independence and equality. Although gender equality has progressed exponentially since the suffrage movement, progress is not always, for lack of a better word, progressive or forward. Feminism is sometimes overzealously discouraged, especially today. We live in a victim culture in which the con¬sequences result directly from the victim’s actions and colloquialisms. For instance the cause of violence against women has somehow turned into the sole plight of women, not the perpetrators of violence. Even the way we speak reflects this notion; a simple sentence, “John beat Mary,” turns into “Mary was beaten by John” then to just “Mary was beaten” to “Mary is battered” and finally “Mary is a battered women” (Ted: Jackson Katz). This simple yet powerful transition highlights victim-blaming culture; John is now completely factored out and domestic abuse is now part of Mary’s identity. Nevertheless, we should not blame the individual perpetrators for it is naive to believe that the root cause starts at the individual level; the problem that surrounds us is a much more systematic social trend. Rather than blame these individuals, we should ask: are there institutions to help abusive men and correct their behavior? What role do sports, family, politics, and even pornography play into this detrimental trend? These intersections and connections that we start to correlate between the perpetrator’ s actions and our society’ s problems are paramount to resolving the issue at hand.