A lot of teenage boys see feminists as lesbians or people who don’t shave their armpits and rage about how much life sucks because no one takes them seriously as females. By contrast, a lot of feminists actually put down men and see them as terrible people who never want women to leave the kitchen. Both of these viewpoints are misguided and it’s time to set the record straight. The entire feminist movement shouldn’t be looked at as a way of dividing the genders, but as seeing the value of a woman equal to the value of a man.

Certainly there are differences in the genders. The female body has been proven to have less mass than the body of a male. Men carry more muscle and build muscle much faster than women. Women saying that they can do the same physical jobs as men has been scientifically proven to be false.

In the world where men and women use their brains to come up with logic, this is true. However, in the literal physical power of a man meaning how much one can carry, the man wins.

Sure, there are outliers to this fact, more women have gotten into the bodybuilding world recently, such as Nikki Blackketter or Heidi Somers who body build alongside their boyfriends. However, these women are exceptions to the general rule. The female body doesn’t produce testosterone which is the hormone that allows protein to directly repair the muscles of the body after a workout. The female body has evolved to be weaker than a male’s and some tasks that a male can perform using body strength can’t be done by a woman.

But in many other ways, females surpass males. For instance, female teenage drivers tend to drive better than males and on average, have to pay half of the cost of teenage boys. Although insurances vary, the amount girls have to pay is significantly lower. Even though this number may seem shocking, or boys may see this as unfair, the truth is there is enough evidence and demand for insurance for teenage boys that insurance companies see value to charging the teenage boys twice as much. According to the Journal of Pediatrics, the female body develops about two years ahead of the male body, making the brain development of a female outgrow a males at a young age. While the development catches up post-puberty, this development directly correlates to performance in school. Also, in a recent study by the Organization for Co-Operation and development has proved that female students have been doing significantly better in high school than male students. This is caused by the male chromosomes’ slower development that is linked to maturity. Boys are proven to be more rowdy and not put forth the same amount of effort as girls.

The point of this entire movement isn’t to bash males or to say that being a girl sucks because we have no rights. The point is to bring to the table that there are certain things that males are better at and females are better at. There is no way to get around these facts. However, what we can do as a society is to put forth the effort so that in areas such as pay and social situations, women are not put down as much as they have been in the past. The US has come a long way from not allowing women to vote or receive the same jobs as males. There will always be room for improvement, but being upset and putting the blame on the entire male human species is not the way the accomplish this. For females, putting down males is not the way to achieve success. We as a society must come together and see the differences in the genders, and put forth effort to equalize the genders where they need to be.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Gabby Perelmuter at [email protected].