There's a reason why feminism still exists

1893 - Women are first give the right to vote in Colorado.
1903 - The National Women's Trade Union League is established to improve wages and working conditions for women.
1919 - The federal woman suffrage amendment, introduced to Congress in 1878, is finally passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate.
1920 - The Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor is formed to monitor women in the workplace, collecting information and safeguarding working conditions.
August 26, 1920 - The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote, becomes law thanks to Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.
(http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenstimeline1.html#axzz0zPhluGJi)

Looks like we got everything we wanted, right? So then why are there still raging feminists out there today? It's because on paper it appears that women are treated just as fairly as men, but that doesn't mean that socially they have any greater standing whatsoever.

Sure we've come a long way, but as far as society goes, women still have not reached the point where they are at the same level as men. There are women CEOs and females who have worked their way to the top, but you don't see them in the spotlight nine out of ten times. It's always their male counterparts sucking up the glory. There still has yet to be a female president (not that the candidates so far have been all that great), but who has really given us a chance to break through up there? Not men.

I don't know where the idea that men are better than women originally came from came from, but I do know that it is completely bogus. In many ancient societies (Sparta, Egypt, Native American culture, etc.) women were the main foundation for how they lived and thrived, making them equal to, and in some cases better than, men. Without women, most societies never would have flourished. There were even societies completely made up of only women that found ways to thrive until dying out from lack of reproduction.

Still, how often to you hear a guy saying, "She can't do it because she's a woman." Guys, how often do you think things like, "I don't play games with girls," or, "I'm not going to bother because she's just a girl." Well, why not? There is nothing that says men are inherently better at the stupid things they play this "better than women" card on. I know tons of girls who play Call of Duty on their own -- no boyfriend required -- and kick total ass at it. Nothing out there says that just because you have balls means that you're instantly better at sports with them.

It's upsetting when leagues like the Women's National Basketball Association or Women's Professional Soccer get knocked because they're made up of breasts and estrogen. I admit that they very well may be a bunch of lesbians running around on a court or field, but that doesn't stop them from actually being good at what they do and it certainly doesn't keep them from being able to kick the asses of most men who even tried to go up against them. I know that any one of those women could definitely beat all of my guy friends into the ground at once. Unfortunately, that doesn't really matter because they're just the butt of everyone's jokes. How fair is that?

This isn't me saying that I'm some crazed feminist that thinks all men are evil and should be castrated in their sleep. I love my boyfriend and the guys that I hang out with are usually pretty cool, but it gets old, boys. I'm just saying that the next time you wanna crack the "why don't women need to wear watches" joke, look at Chef Emeril John Lagasse instead of your 1950s picture. Just admit it: you need us.

Don't expect a guy to hold the door open for you and not check out your ass on the way by.

We've all heard it hundreds of times before: chivalry is dead. However, I'm actually not saying that here, despite the title I assume you've already read. It's not dead. It just comes at the cost of a good ass checking. Whether this cost has been there all along, I don't know. I didn't live a hundred years ago.

Now, you might be asking, "Melissa, why would you say something like that? What do you think men are? Pigs?" No, I don't think they're pigs. I just think they're men, and no matter how smooth/subtle/utterly charming all males think that they are, they're not. Any girl could tell you that, and if she doesn't, she's playing dumb because she thinks that you (the boy) thinks it's cute. We actually know about a lot of the little things that guys do behind our backs. We just choose not to say anything because secretly it makes us feel hot and cool on the inside, and there's absolutely no shame in that.

Anyway, I came to this realization today when I had neglected to bring my student ID with me to class. This meant that I had no way of getting into my dorm building since Plattsburgh is on a scanning system where you put your card up to the scanner and it will give or deny you access to that building. Mine gives me access to my dorm all hours of the day, except not when I leave it in the back pocket of my pants from last night instead of putting it back in my wallet, which I actually had remembered. This meant that I had to wait for someone to decide to go in or out of my building and then play it off like we had magically arrived at the same time.

Luckily, my wait wasn't that long. It only took moments of purposelessly rummaging through my bag until a guy with a skateboard came out on his way to class. Not only did he open the door, giving me my in, but he kindly stood there and waited for me to go by before he went on his way. And you want to know how I know that he checked out my backside?

Peripheral Vision: (n) Vision at the edges of the visual field using only the periphery of the retina.
(Definition from Princeton University's WordNet. http://wordnet.princeton.edu/)

It really is a magical thing. Got me through all my years of band camp and helps me know when boys are checking me out.

Now, I am no narcissist. Anyone who knows me also knows that I have all kinds of self-esteem issues and would not be tooting any horns about my ass, but that's the beauty of this concept. This is where you have to actually give the guys props. They've realized that an ass is an ass no matter what the face looks like and that the right pair of jeans can do wonders. It's called a But-Her-Face. (If you don't know what this is, you can definitely check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK7wW-qj2SY)

Once a girl turns around -- for example, to go up the stairs to the floor where her room is -- it's all fair game as long as they're not 200 lbs. overweight. I feel if a girl falls anywhere in the realm of borderline anorexic to slightly chunky, this happens to them. So ladies, if you fall in here, then congratulations. Your butt's worthy of an almost Hollywood-like sneak peak.