To many, it may seem odd that a man may call himself a feminist: I guess it is a testament to being surrounded by strong women since birth: Kathleen Ryan, Mary Martin, Nancy Juergens, Aunt Linda, Aunt Martha, Irene Winters, Meera Rao, and many more.

So that even when my own mother Carol died of cancer, I was not motherless.

What happens when a boy is engulfed by powerful women whose voices and actions on women's behalf reverberate locally and globally? What questions would a young man ask when he has to answer to proud women who look him in the eye with firm compassion even when he is inundated with the hum or roar from society, culture, and other men (and even some women), that women are somehow inferior, weak, less than?

That drumbeat of inequality was so powerful that somehow the word "feminist" had slipped into my own consciousness with negative undertones: that people who are feminists are angry, bitter, and constantly in a struggle. Where did that idea come from? Was it through films, books, or the voices of others?

My mother was an absolutely force of nature and she could lay into anyone who dared put women into the second class of humanity. Her legacy shapes my world view, my philosophy.

Recently, my partner Jade showed me a TED Talk of Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, the Nigerian novelist, who put it simply: "Feminists simply believe women and men are equal."

And so it is with absolute pride that I salute all of the mother-sister figures in my life and say, "I am a feminist."

-Alok Appadurai is Communications Director for A Beautiful Body Project, public speaker, co-founder of Fed By Threads, a writer, father, social entrepreneur, photographer, designer, environmentalist, and animal welfare advocate. Visit www.AlokAppadurai.com to learn more.

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