Even as women’s history month draws to a close, it has become clear that certain aspects of women’s studies have been less than popular. From students’ jeers at NIU’s annual “Take Back the Night” march in October to the recent change in South Dakota’s legislature regarding abortions, it has suddenly become a very undesirable time to be a feminist.

Stereotypes about feminists have infiltrated the media, often depicting them as man-hating, illogical radicals. Perhaps the greatest misconception about feminism is that it’s outdated and irrelevant: a revolution in place merely for the sake of rebellion.

Unfortunately, this stereotype couldn’t be further from the truth.

Violence and subjugation of women has been so omnipresent throughout the world that an activist movement named V-Day transpired to help put an end to the oppression. Through its project “The Vagina Monologues,” V-Day has raised thousands of dollars, yet the play is being banned in colleges throughout the United States. The Cardinal Newman Society, which calls the feminist play “offensive and vulgar” has actually posted “11 (monologues) canceled! Great work!” on its Web site.

According to this month’s report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, women in the U.S. don’t need any extra reassurance that their bodies are “offensive and vulgar.” Every year, millions of women go “under the knife” and treatments such as Botox have become 53 percent more popular in the past five years.

And just when we thought we had it easy compared to women in other countries, the World Economic Forum’s latest report lists the United States as No. 17 in economic, political, educational and health-related gender equality.

If feminism isn’t pertinent to these issues, I don’t know what is. Yet the off-putting stereotypes persevere.

“Up to the ’90s, the women’s studies movement was so successful, to some degree its success generated fear,” said Colette Morrow, visiting professor of women’s studies and past president of the National Women’s Studies Association. “This has strengthened the will to stop the kind of change and reform that women’s movements create.”

This change and reform could have such a positive impact on our world if we took the time to understand it.

“The sooner students recognize the importance of feminism, we might be able to have more widespread cultural changes, from violence at any level, to intrapersonal communication,” renowned feminist Valentine Moghadam said during her visit to NIU this month.

Feminism is a very simple principle. It doesn’t tell us what is right or what we should think. It asks questions.

It asks us to think about ourselves as whom we’d like to be instead of whom someone else expects you to be. It asks why we feel the pressure of having to look like an Abercrombie and Fitch model, why we are ashamed of our sexuality, if we should be able to have choices about if and when we want to have children and if we should have to feel that there is something wrong with us if we are objectified, harassed, raped or not taken seriously.

It’s been that very questioning that has gotten women the right to vote, the right to sue against sexual harassment, the right to declare rape a crime and the right to have a say in our own reproductive health. And for those of you who think it’s time to stop questioning, think again.