“Today, we’re going to start our unit on feminism.”

That sentence, uttered by my AP Literature teacher a few months ago, excited me. For just half a second, I allowed myself to fantasize an ideal world of intellectual discussion. For half a second, I allowed my brain to begin preparing itself for reading works of literature that would foster reasonable debate. For half a second, I was looking forward to something outside of the usual coming-of-age theme that our English teachers have been beating into our heads seemingly since we were born.

However, that half a second was ruined before my teacher could even begin her second sentence.

My doomed fantasy was shattered an instant later by a loud groan coming from the back of the class, prompted by that offensive and automatically abhorrent word: feminism.

And of course to make matters worse, the groan had come from a fellow female.

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