I know exactly how you feel! That's how I felt too. Luckily I have friends and family that agree with me, and are open minded. There is always those friends/new people that think that I am "over-analyzing" everything, but it doesn't discourage me at all, it just makes me want to prove it even more to them that it is important. It makes me realize how needed I am, and how vital it is to get my message across.

Even though it seems to be a very small amount of close friends & family that are pro-feminist, I can always come on here and there is a fuckload of kick ass women who feel exactly the same way I do, and that feels like I have support 24/7. Thank you feministing!

Welcome, aas711!! I think you'll find that many people here share your frustration. I even have to argue with supposedly progressive people about why feminism is still relevant. I get very tired of lecturing people my own age as though I'm two times older...

Aww, I just want to thank you for this lovely post :) Sometimes it's nice to remind oneself, in the middle of all the activity that goes on here, of the great function that this place serves for people.

'Welcome to the struggle.' indeed. But welcome to all the benefits, as well, which way outstrip the fallbacks. ;)

I can't wait to get to university and find some more feminists.

Yay feminism! It can be a challenge to be an open feminist, but it's worth it to not compromise the values you hold dear. So many people have misconceptions of what feminism is and does, after all! Fight the power!

Good to hear from another feminist. Keep writing! :) Iz

Happy coming out! I can relate to your post, because I suppose I've also just come out and am finding it a bit hard. I also come from a family of all women, and surprisingly the person giving me the hardest time about this is my older sister, who is quite cynical about the whole thing because of her personal experiences with men. The best part about my 'coming out' is that my boyfriend to my surprise actually supports me fully, and is on his way to calling himself a feminist. But I have many friends who are saying the same things to me that you're describing. That I should let it go, and stop putting so much thought in to something that is not that big of a deal. I've even started a pretty big fight between my mom and her boyfriend because I was reading Full Frontal Feminism and discussing it with my mother and he pipes up that I should just turn my head and ignore it, becasue if not I will just drive myself crazy. My mom did not like this and it started a whole argument. You know what though, if you decide to fight the opression of women you are going to have to deal with a lot of negativity from people who most likely don't even fully understand what it is. So keep fighting the good fight!

I've helped convert many friends via Feministing. It's interesting because most of them already had feminist ideas, they just needed help making the connections between their ideas and the whole sprectrum of it all. Now, most of my friends identify as feminists and we talk about Feministing like it's our Bible. Feministing and Feministe.com has brought me into the light. I hope it does that for hundreds/thousands a day.

Thank you for sharing your experience. As a recently open Feminist myself, I completely relate to much of your post. High school, of course, is a ridiculously difficult place to be an open feminist. I'm lucky to a) be going to an amazing college in the fall with a great campus violence prevention program and a great women's resource center and b) have a boyfriend who fully supports my feminism and actually think it's pretty kick-ass. :)
So congratulations and welcome to Feministing! It has quickly become my favorite website. So great to have a place to discuss issues with intelligent and open-minded people.
Thanks Feministing!

Nice post. Always remember that there are feminists out there -- women and men -- who share your views and your frustrations with people who don't see.

Wow. This is aas711 and thank you all for commenting. I didn't expect this many comments and I plan on writing many more blogs. Thank you all for the support.

Welcome to the community! I certainly understand the struggle of being an open feminist. As a women studies major, an openly feminist columnist for my school paper, and being involved with campus activism for class, work, and for fun, I get my share of anti-feminists who feel the need to attack me, as well as a conservative family that is not very understanding about my beliefs. But I have a great support system of feminist friends and feministing serves as a great community for me to connect with.

I can definitely relate to it being hard to find people who share the same views, or even if they do, who identify as feminists.

I didn't consider myself a feminist until I became a carpenter and saw how much inequality there still is. From outright discrimination to more subtle things. The subtle things are far more common and, I think, harder to deal with, especially since they very often come from women.

I recently had a discussion with one of my teenaged cousins and my sister-in-law about feminism, and it shocked me how clueless they both were about what it is and why its still relevant.

Thank you for this post! I just joined feministing today, though I've been reading for nearly a year, and have only recently "come out" as a feminist. It's great to hear from someone in a similar situation!

great post, im also "coming out of the feminist closet" and completely know what its like to see sexism where your friends dont, and sometimes i wonder how it is that no one else notices this or if im just not in on the joke. but reading this site has showed me there is a god, and she loves feminists.