Not your body, not your choice.

Men of quality, support gender equality

The first great way to make a change is to educate yourself on the subject itself- and by reading this you are already starting to do that! However since I am young (as much as I do appreciate you reading this) I am going to recommend to you some books I have personally read that have really helped shape the ways I view feminism and have educated me that little bit more whilst being throughly entertaining. I will also include books I personally haven't read but have heard positive things about - if you have read any of these books or have anymore feminist book recommendations please let me know in the comments :)

Those books include;
• dairy of a confused feminist (if you like this one there is a second one called must do better)
• what's a girl gotta do? ~ Holly Bourne
•women don't owe you pretty
•  fix the system, not the women
•  we should be all be feminists
• I am Malala

Hopefully these books will inspire and educate you. However if you are not a book person I also have some great feminist movie recommendations:
• little women
•moxie
• women without men
• on the basis of sex
• suffragette
• battle of the sexes
•period. End of sentence.

And for one more subtle yet effective thing you can do to learn more about feminism is by listening to some of these songs:
•the man
• run the world (girls)
• confident
• power
• love myself
• Salute
Of course by listening to these songs this is not making a massive impact on women being oppressed today however it is giving you that insider to women empowerment and how unlike men in power, women in power does not hurt the other gender but in power them too.
Even just research and educating others on the topic of feminism and sexism will make more of an impact then you realise.
If anyone ever tells you there is dumb rules to being a feminist such as 'you can't like pink' or 'you can't date a man' ignore them as these are stupid. However I do have some tips and some things I would avoid personally as a feminist and a girl in general:
~remember guys can be victims of sexism too, so do not disregard their struggles just because they are different to your own
~guys can be feminists too- even though fem is in the title feminism is for everyone
~don't judge people based on how much skin they show or what their job is, and avoid words such as skank, whore and so on as they are awful and not needed ever
~make sure you know your facts about feminism and don't just thrown in random statistics to prove a point (a mistake I must admit I made once) as this is obviously lying and not helpful to your point
~educate others and be patient if they aren't understanding- even send them this if they want to find out more
~remember we are all in this together so even if things are feeling tough and it's getting too much you will overcome it but you cannot let it overcome you
~Finally, no one's perfect, if you mess up and call someone a name or you do something sexist; apologise, move on and learn from your mistakes :)
Another way to educate yourself on feminism is, as I've mentioned previously in the first chapter, speeches from famous women about sexism can be especially inspiring.
My personal favourite is the Emma Watson speech however there are hundreds out there for you too watch- if you do watch any particularly good ones please let me know in the comments as I am looking for some good ones currently too.
It is also incredibly important as a feminist (and human) to love and appreciate yourself and most definitely not compare yourself to others. This may be drifting slightly from women's suffrage however I think it is very important to make a quick note of the fact that social media is fake and as long as you are healthy, you are perfect.
Now back to the good stuff- suffrage!
I would like to take this next part to look more closely into the sexiest situations boys can be put into which I find are overlooked massively. Remember you are not supporting equality unless you understand and listen to both sides.
My first point is about double standards (in a later chapter I will look at double standards for women but for now double standards) for men. My first point is probably the most obvious but in my opinion it is the most important: emotions. You may think 'boys don't cry' is the extent of sexism for boys but you would be wrong. Guys are under a constant pressure to appear 'masculine' and 'not be weak' therefore a guy doesn't have the privilege of crying in public about small things like a bad hair day like girls do. They don't have the ability to tell their friends they are feeling emotionally vulnerable so they don't want to go out. Until my friend brought it up to me I never thought about how guys are also constantly being control by society:
"You told her no? Why she's fit?"
"That's so gay"
"He's no son of mine"
"Come on be a man!"
What does be a man even mean?! Because in the context I've heard it in the message comes across more as "come on be an asshole!" And that is really not the message we need to be sending to anyone especially not young boys.
"That's so gay" the idea of guys doing stereotypical girls stuff is frowned on by society and deemed negatively "gay", not only resulting in a homophobic saying itself but also teaching guys they are limited in what they can harmlessly enjoy.   
Take a moment to think about people breaking gender stereotypes, take cross-dressing for example; girls are rewarded for taking part in socially deemed 'boys sports' and for dressing in men's clothes to bring equality one step forward. But what about the boys who do the same thing? What about the guys who do ballet, and wear make up and like to wear dresses? Does society reward them in the same way? No. Society shames and discriminates against these actions and these people, forcing mean nicknames upon these men and a lot of the time children.
I cannot stress how important it is that we as the next generation break this cycle, that we allow people to be who they are so that the world can be a loving and interesting place. Next time you think your harmless comment about a guys or girls appearance is acceptable please think back to this blog and think deeply before you say it.
Words can change lives, for good or bad.
Boys are also much more likely to end up in gangs or apart of violence- speaking of violence I have a very interesting question I would love your opinion on in the comments. What are your thoughts on 'never hit a girl'? Now I know it's an odd question to ask but this phrase really gets me thinking sometimes, how is this fair? If we as feminists want equality surely if a women being able to hit a man is acceptable is it not acceptable for a man to use self defence to hit a women? Don't get me wrong I'm not stupid and I am aware that men are naturally much physically stronger than women and a hit from a man would most likely hurt more than a hit from a woman. I'm also not encouraging anyone hits anyone violence is not often the answer but sure that sentence is a pure example of double standards? Men also experience domestic abuse, say if I man had to fight back and say hit a girl who was forcing herself on him, is he still in the wrong? My opinion is no however I know it is a lot more complicated than just yes or no so please let me know what you think In the comments.
Although do think about the fact if I asked "is it acceptable for a girl to hit a man who is forcing himself on her' I guarantee you would have said yes a lot quicker and thought about it a lot less than you would the first one. Just something to think about really.
Boys can also suffer a lot with the effects of peer pressure, especially with situations including: alcohol, drugs and sex. Boys with often find 'harmless' fun in 'encouraging' each other to do reckless things which could in theory cause harm to them or others. Now girls will also do these sorts of things as well of course but traditionally girl friendship groups tend to encourage each other to better themselves and work hard in life. Whereas traditionally boys will be tilted things such as "pussy" if they do not follow the norms of their friend group or feel uncomfortable with certain things.

Gender socialisation and inequality

Feminists argue that traditional gender roles are harmful to both males and females. Girls and boys are traditionally socialised to follow different sets of norms and values, which we call masculinity and femininity. Feminists argue that socialisation limits the opportunities open to both genders and affects life-chances. Women are particularly affected by this as society is patriarchal/male dominated. 

Think about children from a young age, whereas we may not think much of how we stereotype them and justify it by saying 'they're only young it's fine, they don't understand', this is actually extremely adding to gender stereotypes/ inequality. The language used around young children such as 'Good girl' or 'Naughty boy' really affects the way young children are brought up to view the world. Why on earth are we telling little boys that they aren't allowed to cry? Or young girls that they can't play with firetrucks, only the dolls? Everything we teach our children, has an effect on their views as they grow older.

When these children get older and go into primary/secondary school, their peer groups will also massively affect how they view gender identity. Boys are most likely to form laddish subcultures which means they are very misogynistic and 'boys will be boys'.  This may be caused by peer pressure or need for status and approval amongst their peers.