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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Yes, although I really do have to question the capability of concern silos to effect change through society.
Women’s rights are human rights. Lgbt rights are human rights. Worker rights are human rights.
The fight for human rights is a fight for us all. United we stand, divided we fall. And holeeeshit are we fucking falling right now.
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 do believe gender is a social construct that’s becoming outdated. And that we shouldn’t have nor woman nor men, at all.
Make of that what you want.
The gender binary is becoming outdated, but gender expression is an important part of personal identity. Gender isn’t going away, the limiting cage of the pink/blue divide is.
I have my doubts over that. I think expression without label restrictions is more free and organic.
At the end a gender, any gender. Is a sum of behavioral characteristics. But there are too many characteristics that can be flip floped all over the place. And having those layers is oppressive towards people wanting to express outside that label expected set of characteristics. As much diverse layers as we want to create they will never be as infinite as the infinity of the behavioral human spectrum.
On a more political side I sometimes fear that gender expression are used to create dominance groups. “We are Z gender, and I’m the Z gender representative so I get power all over these people”. It’s easier to dominate groups when they are categorized and segregated. I know is the main big thing about identity politics, which is somehow hot in some places left agenda. But I’m very against it. Only identity that matter to me is human and everything else it not segregable to me.
Gender expression is something people should be able to choose for themselves, including in fluidity, flux, plurality, and however said gender does or does not conform to social expectation. I’m personally “cis,” I’m a man, but I also make it clear that people can use they/them to refer to me and that’s fine. I see myself as a “less masculine man.” That doesn’t mean feminine-presenting men need to use they/them, either. Pronouns are personal, and I feel most comfortable presenting myself this way. If my gender were taken from me, I would be less comfortable. It’s a form of self-expression.
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.