Might help also to describe what you think feminism is, since it’s one of those terms that is overloaded.
I once had a physical therapist tell me she wasn’t a feminist because she thought women couldn’t be as physically capable as men when serving as soldiers, and seemed to believe feminism requires treating women exactly like men.
I told her I was a feminist because I believe in equal rights for men and women, an idea she did not seem so opposed to.
This is insane. Why is everyone redefining the feminist movement!? Why so many “this feminism but”? Feminism is the belief in and advocacy of political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.
Do you believe sexes should have equal rights in society? Yes? You’re a feminist. Don’t be afraid of the term. That means that you bought up the anti-feminist propaganda. It’s like going about saying “I’m against the genocide, but not the kind where I hate the jews or support Hamas or terrorist but I believe in not killing children but of course not the kind of belief where I’d attack israeli sold…” Like wtf is this. That’s the definition. Stop tiptoeing. Call it out when you see it. Help your fellow human beings and keep on with your life.
FYI you can’t be a feminist if you pay for the SA and murder of other women.
I like the Rebecca West quote: “I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.”
I’ve always thought of women as people. Wild I know. Also I’m transitioning towards being one so y’know, some selfish desire for women’s rights and safety too.
K but once you get there, you’ll tell us if it turns out you’re not actually a person anymore, right?
Yes, as in “women deserve equal rights across the board”
No, as in “feminism is the synonym to and only valid kind of antisexism and every gendered issue should be seen exclusively through women’s struggle”
I’m here for the equality of men and women, and believe that only in cooperation, through consideration of issues on each side, we can efficiently combat sexism.
Feminism should not be “us vs them”. It should be one part of the larger circle that is looking at how we can improve things for everyone - women, men, and nonbinary people.
We should bridge the gap on all sides, so that whatever gender you are, you have equal possibilities in life, career, and everything else, you are safe and can build your life the way you want.
That means no one should be targeted by sexual harassment and exploitation. No one should be denied jobs or have lower salary based on arbitrary characteristics. No one should be forced to choose a binary gender if they’re neither. Kids should not be indoctrinated with traditional gender roles. Etc. etc.
And, honestly, I don’t think many will disagree here. Many of those who “do not support feminism” don’t mean they go against equality - they are rather concerned about a specific form of particularly loud online feminism pretending men are all evil and that there’s no related struggle on men’s end.
It should be one part of the larger circle that is looking at how we can improve things for everyone - women, men, and nonbinary people
Modern feminism does exactly that.
I get that people get hung up on the label, but other demographics’ issues are absolutely part of it. It’s called intersectionality.
The label is important, though, because as long as we call it all feminism, any conversation that does not explicitly target women audience may be maliciously hijacked. I’ve seen this happening in the wild a lot - people arguing that we steal feminism when talking about issues from another perspective.
Also, speaking of intersectionality, isn’t it weird for it to be a subsection of feminism again? Intersectionality commonly includes issues of race, disabilities, transgender individuals, and so on, and as such, men along with nonbinaries who struggle on each of the axis may not get adequate attention and representation under the umbrella of feminism, as again, it’s “about women” (it kinda is).
To me, antisexism should cover feminism, masculism (a term recently hijacked by bad actors, but initially coming from the same place as feminism - equality for all, focus on instances of male discrimination), a movement of nonbinary people.
Intersectionality should go above feminism, and above antisexism for that matter. It is about all struggles of all groups of people, and ultimately stands to cover it all - antisexism, anti-racism, trans inclusion, inclusion of people with disabilities, etc. etc.
I don’t think that’s necessarily malicious. Sounds like those people may have a thing to learn about feminism as well.
It’s not about being a “subsection”. It’s not a competition who’s on top. It’s about recognizing how these issues share a common core and many negative effects, and need to be addressed together rather than competing for attention. That’s exactly what intersectionality addresses.
As far as I’m aware, the inclusive movement that focuses on male issues in a way that regards itself in cooperation rather than competition with feminism (after men’s rights was successfully taken over by the right-wing) labels itself men’s liberation.
Yes, in the sense that I believe men and women should have equal rights. I suspect people who say they aren’t feminists have a different definition of it.
To be fair, the word feminist is super outdated, since it has the connotation of being for women because of the “femi”. Well… It kinda was during the feminist movements of the early 1900s, but that in itself was as a fight for equality.
Point is, I’d love a rebrand to something like “Equalist” or something better sounding but with the same connotations.
The term you’re looking for is an egalitarian.
I can say I was long ago when it was roughly “women’s rights should be equivalent to men’s rights” in terms of personal, work, social values and features.
These days and especially in the last 10 I don’t think the umbrella of feminism is large enough to encompass all of the discrimination I have seen through my time existing.
The long and the short of it is people’s rights should be similar when applicable, the same when possible.
Thinking about it, I believe in equal rights, but would prefer not to be called a feminist, because it implies preference to women. Men have some rights where they are worse off than women, like military service, or - at least here in Poland - differing retirement age.
Also, at a certain point, because there’s biological and cultural (for a long time, if not forever) ups and downs to each gender, doing equal rights would then be unfair to whichever gender has it worse, which will certainly be subjective. I’m mostly for it in obvious bullshittery like salaries for the same job done or abortion rights, but at some point like maternity and paternity leave, I’m not giving it much thought.
(Also, I’d totally punch a woman anytime I’d punch a man, which is never anyways, but I think most people would call that feminism anyway)
I guess to some degree, not very actively though so I wouldn’t necessarily call myself one. To me feminism fights for a society where people have equal opportunities, safety, etc regardless of gender. I support that idea wholeheartedly. But I’m not actively fighting for it or anything, which is why I’m hesitant to call myself a feminist.
Yes, and I don’t really feel the need to clarify or weaken that stance by carving a really specific definition or “but not this or that”.
I’m a feminist, take that as you will.
I believe in equal rights and opportunities for all, be they man, woman, in between or none of the above.
But saying (and perhaps believing) one is a feminist and actually acting like one are often two different pairs of shoes. We all are confronted with so much discrimination, with so much bias, with so much misogyny, it takes active labour to actually behave like a feminist, because no matter how you think about yourself, at some point and to some degree, all that shit we get confronted with every day will rub off on us, and we have to understand that and constantly check ourselves so that it does not influence us in our thought patterns. Constant mental garbage collection, if you want.
That is true for all kinds of discrimination, no matter what it is based on.
I am neither a Feminist, nor a Machista. However I feel like both genders have equal ability to do anything (except biological things, but that’s what science is for). One thing that gets on my nerves is the idea that society says that whomever stays at home is weak… Motherfucker, taking care or tiny humans, dumb animals and somehow keep a whole house clean and disinfected is as much work as any blue collar job (fuck, it might be even harder). On top of that my wife cooks amazing so whenever I can I treat her with whatever she wants whenever she wants it because she fucking earned it, because that’s why I’m the one working, and I know she would do the same if the roles where reversed.
I guess I’m a feminist, but I don’t really call myself a feminist. I call myself a humanist, maybe even an environmentalist, because I believe that all humans, and animals, and the environment should have rights, and should be protected against greedy, scared and powerhungry (sick) individuals.
Feminism as often defined:
the belief that women should be allowed the same rights, power, and opportunities as men and be treated in the same way, or the set of activities intended to achieve this state. Is something I agree with support.
I wouldn’t call myself a feminist because I think the word is basically broken. Too many people use it in a different way than this definition. Too many people think that if you are a feminist you have to agree with other things or you are not a feminist. I would describe myself as a humanist; I think.
I don’t know if I like words being hijacked/appropriated by people with extreme views. The weird semantic shift for words like “feminist” (or “nazi” actually now that I think about it) points to a deficit in the education system in our countries.
I disagree. I don’t think people started misusing feminism because they didn’t know what it means.
My definition of feminism is roughly: People of all genders share equal legal rights and social respect. This doesn’t mean biological differences aren’t real or shouldn’t be considered.
So yes, I consider myself a feminist as I have defined above. I do support biological segregation of things like athletics. I say biological since there are obvious outliers when it comes to hormones, muscle mass, and reaction time differences between the biological sexes.
