The Feminists of OU are an on-campus organization that works toward raising awareness of inequalities faced by minority groups in contemporary cultures. President of the organization, Erin Shrum, sat down with The Post to talk upcoming events, why students should join and what it truly means to be a feminist.

“A major misconception of feminism is that it focuses on women’s issues and women’s issues only,” she said. “Although gender inequality is a major forefront of our battle, any form of injustice against any oppressed group is our battle as well. Our group works extremely hard to make sure that all perspectives are heard on campus. Students should join because each individual voice is vital for the movement as a whole.”

Feminists of OU was revamped in 2016 during the fall semester and has been active ever since, keeping a tightly knit circle of 25 members. Each month, the organization holds at least one lecture and hosts one event.

“Our lectures usually involve a professor speaking about a feminist issue ‘and free food’,” Shrum said. “While our events are more activist oriented, such as our annual slut walk or equal pay bake sale, we are always open to ideas and we have no problem scheduling an event if that’s what members of the organization are interested in.”

September 28 was the organization’s second annual slut walk, a march for freedom from the strategies used to uphold oppressive power structures.

“People use degrading terms such as “slut” to maintain power over a marginalized group of people,” Shrum said. “Slut walks have notoriously been about women marching against this word in order to reclaim it and take away its power. The Feminists of OU wanted to take this concept and expand it in order to make it more inclusive to all people. Feminism isn’t actually feminism unless it combats the oppression faced by all people simply because of their class, whether it be sex, gender identity, income, sexual orientation, race and ability.”

Shrum also hopes the organization can extend their message to a broader range of people by opening the march up to combat all types of derogatory words used to uphold oppressive power structures, rather than restricting the march to just the word “slut.”

As for students who are thinking about joining the organization, Shrum said that it’s important for the feminist movement as a whole to be inclusive of people with various backgrounds.

“The more perspectives we have, the better,” she said. “Anyone is welcome to join, and we hope you do. We are all learning every day and all working together to become the best versions of ourselves.”

For more information, visit Feminists of OU’s Grizz Org’s page.