Actress turned media expert Geena Davis spoke to a pair of audiences in Seattle on Monday. The first, on the campus of Microsoft, was made up mostly of men; the second, at Seattle Town Hall, consisted largely of women.

Why this is relevant is that it provided a perfect visual representation of the male-female divide upon which Davis’ Institute of Gender in Media is pinned. During her second evening appearance, the Oscar winner suggested that the world is due for a resurgence of the women’s movement, although a new word may be in order. Per a report by KPLU Tacoma public radio‘s Tom Paulson:

Many noted that the word ‘feminist’ has become tainted. Davis got a laugh when she recalled the reaction she got from critics and many in the public when she described one of her other movies about women baseball players, A League of Their Own, as a feminist movie.

“They reacted as if I said I have sex with animals,” Davis said. It’s a symptom of the problem in our culture, she added, since all feminism is really about is trying to ensure equal rights for women. “It’s actually an incredibly simple concept.”

At one point during the Town Hall Q&A, a female high school student asked Davis how they could make being a “feminist” as cool as Kim Kardashian. The question elicited raucous applause from the audience.

[Photo courtesy thegeenadavisinstitute.org]