Apparently this is an unpopular opinion among feminists. If feminism is about equality for everyone, it needs to address that. As an example, LGBTQ+ was extended many times to cover everyone in the community, and that’s the right thing to do. There isn’t just L and everyone repeats “Oh! Lesbians are for rights for everyone, no need to update that”
I don’t know what the new name should be, but it should cover gender equality for everyone.
I mean this comes off as why isn’t there a C for Cis or S for Straight in LGBTQ+? Shouldn’t they represent all genders/sexual expression? Isn’t it about equality and rights for all genders?! To be clear, I find that stance ridiculous.
Just because straight people are left out of the movement’s title doesn’t mean LGBTQ+ theory is advocating for superiority over straight/cis people, which is kind of your unspoken argument here for the “poor branding” of feminism.
And if you’re looking for the overarching term for all of this. It’s Gender Studies or Gender Equality. Always has been.
Feminism is a field of study not just a movement and it has vastly different interpretations. Liberal feminism and radical feminism are perhaps the most visible and mainstream but that doesn’t come close to all of feminism theory out there.
Feminism is very much meant to be, a criticism of, and in opposition to the patriarchy or male dominated social structures. Hence why “fem” is frontline and center. While cis-men are victims of the patriarchy in nuanced ways they are not its primary victims, and certainly not victims to the same degree as women and LGBTQ+ individuals. And pretending they are to onboard allies is a bit of a slap in the face and a watering down of feminism itself.
Ok, how about this…what if we did the patriarchy but different. Instead of being male dominant, it was just no dominance at all? Instead, we’d have marbles. And everybody gets the same amount of marbles. But the marbles don’t mean anything. Even if you took someone elses marbles, you just have 10 marbles instead of 5. But 10 marbles doesn’t do anything differently than 5 marbles. You just have 10 marbles. Same as you would today.
So then, when it comes to things like money, and power, and dominance…no. No money. No power. No influence. No dominance. Just everybody gets 5 marbles.
And instead of calling it the patriarchy, we can call it Flornandia. A word I just made up.
Now, as it pertains to the giant rubber ducks…
That’s definitely an interesting response because I have spoken to several feminists that will say that they fundamentally agree and believe that all people should be treated equally by default and yet will also post things like “kill all men” or other things about how women should be given special treatment unironically.
It ends up at some level being hypocritical, and hypocrisy is intolerable from thought leaders.
Yeah, this sounds like a pretty common slander arguement, and certainly a use of hyperbole. You’ve seen some memes from some self proclaimed feminist accounts so all of the established feminist literature and established discourse means nothing.
And if you repeat it enough it magically becomes true. You don’t have to experience it first hand anymore because there’s a dozen accounts repeating it and they’ve all had the same exact first hand magical experience you did.
So, disregard women who are actually active in feminist circles and disregard academic critiques and established discourse. Your account and a dozen others repeating the same is clearly a better gauge. Not like bots and bad faith arguments aren’t running rampant.
It’s not slander if it’s true.
I mean, I get what you are saying, but I feel like you’re overlooking my lived experience.
The discourse online is there are an enormous number of feminists who post “men are trash, etc.” get hundreds and thousands of upvotes and reposts.
There are people who have made their entire career off of talking about how trash men are.
I don’t like that.
Do you hate them more than patriarchal figureheads like Andrew Tate, whom take advantage of this unfairness to deride feminism and reduce any femininity to be a threat to all men?
I’m a guy and I do get it, it sucks to be lumped in with the rest. And if asked, of course you disagree with Andrew Tate. You’re a good guy and feel dismissed. But this viewpoint is very male-centric, and I mean that with the utmost empathy.
Women, almost universally, will experience much worse sexism than being called trash (they are also called trash in certain contexts). So if individuals need to be human and vent their frustrations in a way that doesn’t consider you, it is okay to feel bad - but saying “that’s feminism” is misleading as feminism theory does not conclude this.
Yeah, no, Andrew Tate needs to fucking fall off of a bridge onto a large rusty spike and scream for several hours before he finally dies. People like him that promote toxic masculinity as if it is in any way a good thing are some of the worst people on the planet.
Not to mention that he is a rapist and a predator and a sex trafficker. Like, that’s even aside from that. Just his ideology itself deserves him death.
It’s not true though, those people don’t speak for all feminists. You’re focusing on the subset that validates your biases because it reinforces your worldview, i.e. confirmation bias. Some people using female empowerment to put down men does not mean female empowerment is bad.
I never said I was accusing all feminists. I was saying that there are feminists that attack men and upvote each other and circle jerk each other and talk about how great they are for being feminists and being women and all this other stuff and it’s offensive.
I am also aware that for every one person like that there are probably a hundred that are not like that and so I’m talking about a very specific minority of the group is just a loud one that has caused me personal offense
Well, click bait “influencers” trying to ramp up engagement on platforms meant to feed off of controversial content probably isn’t the best place to formulate a legitimate opinion on feminism. Pointing at a handful of bad actors or even just hyperbolic venting on systemic issues or women who feel frustrated, upset and on the defensive isn’t “feminism” as a whole.
I would suggest you engage with more legitimate sources and literature before drawing your conclusions on what feminism is.
Clickbait man hating is not feminism anymore than incel pandering is masculinity.
PS — I don’t like that either (the mindless man hating I mean, preying on disillusioned, upset and vulnerable women.)
I agree with you but your reply misses my entire point. There is a group of people who trash talk all men under the guise of feminism and get a LOT of positive encouragement and support for it online.
That is not cool.
Source: trust me bro