At this year’s 2014 MTV music video awards, Beyonce stood on stage with the word “feminist” in bright lights behind her.

Closer to The University of Alabama, the UA Feminist Caucus will be holding its first meeting Wednesday at the Ferguson Center Forum to discuss how feminism has changed and students can get involved.

“The issue of feminism impacts us everyday regardless of gender, sexual orientation or anything like that. That’s why it’s so important to be involved,” Cassidy Ellis, club president and a first year graduate student studying gender and race studies, said.

Ellis came up with the idea for a feminist club for the University last spring. She said her goal was to address those who have said there isn’t a need for feminism, and that the group seeks to dicuss further misconceptions faced 
about feminism.

The meeting will also focus on upcoming events like “Feminism Is for Everybody” later this month and will have four panelists made up of students and professors. The meeting will host two guest speakers, Bria Harper and Bri Swims, both graduate students from the gender and race studies department.

Ben Ray, a senior majoring in English, recently joined. A “self-identified gay man” from a small town in south-central Alabama, he said he would like to address the issues associated with the Third Wave of Feminism and faced by the LGBTQ community on campus.

“Queerness has become a ‘feminized’ category. What this means is that people who identify as queer are marginalized from the patriarchal expectations of acceptability, hence fewer rights for queer people and the derogatory social treatment of queer people,” he said.

The group said they hope to help students redefine what feminism means to them personally.