High School Boys Prove Feminism is For Everyone

The discussion around the label “feminist”—what it means, who can be one, who it excludes—is endless and exhausting. But a new video of a group of male high school students professing their faith in feminism is a reminder that it’s not that complicated—or exclusive.

High school teacher Ileana Jimenez, who clearly deserves some sort of award, recorded seven of her students sharing their thoughts on feminism. And they are so, so refreshing you want to reach through the screen and hug those young dudes.

The teenagers talk about why they chose to take a feminism course in high school, a truly awesome course offering, that apparently taught the boys about the history of the term.

“I didn’t have a concrete definition of feminism before the class,” says one student named Noel. “I knew it wasn’t the perceived idea to the majority which is, like, that feminism is all women and total hatred towards men.”

“One of the biggest concepts we’ve learned in the class was this idea of intersectionality,” Noel continues. “Intersectionality is the idea that feminism goes beyond just the equality for women. It’s equality between races, gender, class, sexual orientation and so forth.”

Another student, Russell, talks about how the class had opened his eyes to unequal treatment for women.

“Every time you read a magazine, every time that you listen to a song, you can hear the misogynistic undertone,” he says. “My definition (of feminism) would now be equality for all genders, but also for other oppressed groups.”

And, the capper, from a boy named Nathaniel: “We’re the future of feminism right now, that’s why we have to keep the ball rolling. I was asked a while ago if women … if feminists are good where we stand and a lot people said yes and I say no. There’s still a lot of work to be done.”

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