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I prefer the term egalitarian or something to that effect. I definitely fall under the definition of a feminist, but I think it's sort of ironic that a term for equality has an inherent bias for women in the word itself, even if it is not the intended meaning.
I think the word itself has actually harmed the movement significantly. Turns out the words we use matter a lot. So again, I prefer a more neutral sounding term, like egalitarianism or equal rights.
As a CIS male I consider myself a feminist because I recognize that women continue to face systemic challenges that demand more than just abstract ideals of equality. To me, feminism goes beyond egalitarianism. It’s not just about treating everyone the same, it’s about recognizing the different challenges people face and working to change the systems that create and sustain those imbalances.
I was raised by my mom and 3 sisters, and that gave me a front-row seat to the everyday injustices women face. Everything from subtle slights to overt discrimination to being victim of abuse. It wasn’t theory for me, it was lived experience, just one degree removed. I've seen the strength and resilience of the women in my life, and I’ve also seen what they’ve had to push through simply because of their gender.
Now, as a father with a daughter, I feel an even deeper responsibility to be part of the shift. I don’t just want her to grow up in a world that pays lip service to “equality”. I want her to live in one where she’s safe, respected, and empowered. That means doing more than being “not sexist.” It means actively pushing back against the structures and behaviors (the patriarchy) that holds women back.
I have zero tolerance for toxic masculinity and so-called “alpha male” attitudes that promote dominance, entitlement, and emotional repression. That culture hurts everyone, but it especially harms women by normalizing control and aggression.
I want my daughter and every woman to see examples of men who are allies, not bystanders. Feminism is a promise: to show up, to speak out (or more often shut up), and to help dismantle barriers so that every person, regardless of gender, can thrive without restriction or fear.
JK Rowling and the other TERFs have kinda ruined that term just like the american right soiled the flag.
I prefer "egalitarian" at this point, less loaded, and gender inclusive. I'm one of those radicals where I want non-traditional families, no gender roles, and all the vanilla straight stuff to all exist side by side in harmony.
Also, women's clothes needs real pockets. And men need cuter clothes like shortalls. That's a world I want to be a part of :)
The one thing I'm not egalitarian about- straight men need to be taught to pee sitting down, or at least lift the seat, damn. I know it's not all of you, but there are a couple of animals out there that need help. :p
I call myself egalitarian. It distinctly means what you mean by feminist without being so readily confused with what she means by feminist.
(This comment uses translation software.)
Yes. I am a feminist, though I am skeptical.
Some feminists argue(Article in Japanese) that the gender equality brought about by feminism also liberates men from the suffering unique to them.
I take a similar stance, believing that the 'gender equality' brought about by male feminism, which seeks happiness for men, also liberates women from the suffering unique to them. In some ways, I am a reactionary feminist.
Previously, I was a male feminist with old-fashioned thinking, striving to eliminate only women's suffering, not men's.
However, I changed my mind after the Japanese government, where I live, adopted a policy of allocating "female admission quotas" at prestigious universities, including national universities, as part of its affirmative action program, modeled on America's racial admission quotas.
Even back when I supported traditional feminism, I was critical of the current state of university education in Japan, where there are public women's universities but no public men's universities. I also believe that expanding these quotas to general universities would violate the Constitution, which proclaims gender equality. I cannot trust traditional Japanese feminism, which supports the unconstitutional status quo, and that is why I have become the skeptical feminist I mentioned earlier.
I am a feminist because I believe men and women should have equal rights. I think a lot of people fell for the propaganda that feminism is about women over men or something. The thing a lot of men fail to realize is that "the patriarchy" hurts them too. A lot of the things you see men complain about like being told to "man up" or not being able to express their feelings without being mocked are 100% a side effect of patriarchy.
Yeah, specifically I'm fairly third wave in that I've been convinced of the value of an intersectional perspective, am pro modern sexual liberation (including the freedom to not want it), and generally am more aligned with the feminist critiques of the second wave. Furthermore I find a lot of the fourth wave to a shitshow, though considering the concept of the fourth wave is not based on academic ideas or coherent demands, but rather the idea that social media changed feminist discourse so radically as to constitute a change to a different wave.
Feminism has always had multiple sides, and like most liberatory movements it has people who are cringe, who are counterproductively hostile, and who generally suck. It will try things that don't work or push things in bad directions. Also college students and young people will do it in ways that look terrible. But feminist theory is also insightful texts that challenge cultural biases. And in a time where rights such as abortion are under attack and government officials are expressing their opposition to women's suffrage, the principle of equality and fundamental rights remains even if it looks different now from when our grandmothers and great grandmothers were fighting for the right for a bank account.
If feminist just means I think women deserve the exact same rights as men, and same with any other gender, then yes I'm a feminist.
If feminist means a woman advocate who strives to push more female perspectives in a world dominated by male ones, well I'm a cis man so by definition I can't do that. If I want to support that, and I do, the best thing I can do is stop talking and listen.
I think it's a fundamental failure of feminism/people to make men think that they don't deserve a voice, even in support of women.
I'm not, because I do nothing actively in feminist political spaces. I believe opinions count nothing and don't change the world, so I don't want to be bundled up with the plenty of people who use it as a label for virtue signaling while not actually putting the effort in.
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.
I'm a feminist and a men's liberation kinda guy. Feminism is necessary and useful as theory and as a movement. It benefits both men and women
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 would call myself a feminist because I believe in equality. You know, fuck sexism.
I am not a feminist.
Feminism has a variety of different flavors with sets of specific ideals that are not a priority in my view, however the basic idea of equal rights is definitely important to me. The more I think about it, the less I feel I know what I'm talking about which is also why I don't wanna signify I have strong foundational knowledge on this topic. "Equality" is kind of baseline and not what you expect most kinds of feminism to expand to.
Feminist as fuck!
Feminism is the fight for equality, with a particular focus on the needs of women and folk perceived as women. Men are included in feminism, but indirectly, in that improving equality for women necessarily requires addressing systems, norms and issues that negatively impact men as well.
Sure, it's easy to say that you're "egalitarian" or believe in "equality for all", but those sound bites, whilst heading off the anti feminist folk, completely fail to address the fact that inequality is not equally spread between men and women. When everything else is equal, women still deal with more inequality than men, and feminism is exists because of that fact
Can you explain how women deal with more inequality than men?
Until 1972, birth control pills were not accessible to unmarried women.
Until 1973, women in most states could not serve on juries in the U.S.
Until 1974, women were unable to obtain a credit card or open a bank account without their husband as co-signer (and unmarried women were entirely unable to have a bank account or credit card).
Until the 1970s, women were not permitted at most Ivy Leagues (e.g. Harvard did not allow women until 1977).
Until 1978, women could be fired for becoming pregnant.
Until 1980, sexual harassment was not considered a form of sex discrimination, and the first legal case where a court agreed a woman was sexually harassed in the workplace was in 1977.
Until 1993, husbands could legally rape their wives in the many states of the U.S.
Until 2010 health insurance companies were permitted to discriminate against women and charge them higher prices than men for the same coverage.
Until 2013, women were not permitted to serve in combat roles in the U.S. military.
One in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner (compared to 1 in 14 for men).
Women still earn 82 cents to the dollar compared to men, and in 1982 that was 65 cents to the dollar (the situation has not improved since the 90s).
Women experience greater job gaps and unemployment than men.
Only 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.
In 2022, only 33% of university presidents were women.
Women currently make up less than 30% of the U.S. House of Representatives, and 25% of the Senate.
For more: https://www.un.org/en/un75/women_girls_closing_gender_gap
When everything else is equal, women still deal with more inequality than men, and feminism is exists because of that fact
this is such a succinct and eloquent point about why "feminism" is focused on women at all ... this point seems lost on so many men, who seem to think "equality" demands we ignore the way inequality and power is distributed, as if the only approach to the situation is a kind of gender-blindness, and anything else is hypocrisy
I think I'm more egalitarian. But this is largely dependent on what you mean by feminism.
I believe all women should have total agency over themselves. I believe they deserve equal pay, treatment, and rights. I believe them when they discuss their issues and the prevalence of sexual assault and abuse.
I also believe that there are structures in our society that unfairly put them above men. For instance, in child care and criminal sentencing. Women tend to get the benefit of doubt that they are the better parent and that the relationship between a child and a mother is generally more important than that of a child and father. Women also, in general, get lighter sentences for the same crime.
I believe that we should be more equal in the value we place on the relationship between a child and it's father. Raising the importance of how we as a society view that relationship rather than bringing down the importance of the mothers relationship.
I also believe we should lighten the sentences of men to be more in line with women's sentencing. Although that largely falls in line with my personal opinion that criminal sentencing in this country is far, far too harsh.
The thing about feminism is it benifits everybody. Men are a victim of the patriarchy as are women. I believe feminism is necessary to create a better world for everybody.
I will say yes, because I am a woman who has benefited from what feminists did in the past, and don't believe in strict gender roles for men or women, and my kids were all born as girls, I had to work a lot to get them good education, my focus has necessarily been more on advancing the lives of girls than boys, I didn't get boys until I married.
I think humanity as a whole is stronger when women are stronger. Empowering women empowers men too, when we all do more we are stronger, it's not a zero sum thing.
So yeah I think so, yes, soy feminista.
There's so many flavors of feminism, and some self described feminists have been pretty wack, I'm just gonna be an egalitarian.
Yes, I am a feminist because I believe everyone has equal rights under the law regardless of their gender.
If I'm speaking to stupid, sexist cromagnons, I'm a feminist; if I'm speaking to hedonistic, childish third wavers, I'm not.
As an anarchist, sexism and cisheteropatriarchy are unjustifiable hierarchies, and therefore I oppose them. In turn, this makes me an intersectional feminist.
I support freedom of women to make their own decisions and live their live as they see fit. I think this makes me a feminist.
I believe women and men should have equal rights and opportunities and that neither should be forced into certain roles or coddled because of their gender. However I also don’t believe that acknowledging differences between men and women is sexist, nor that equal opportunities resulting in unequal outcomes is a necessarily a result of sexism. I leave it up to others if they want to consider that feminism since I never associated myself with that particular term.
If feminism means equality, yes. If it means women are better than men, no. If it means women have been oppressed so now it is their turn, no.
I am a staunch second-wave feminist. I believe in equal rights and equal respect for men and women and everyone else who doesn't fit into that binary, and that all should be able to work toward the life that suits them best without worrying about traditional gender roles.
It makes me sad to see women who are quick to say they're not a feminist, because they certainly benefit from feminism and I think they'd be rightly enraged if that went away. If they lost the right to vote, to have a bank account or own a home, to pursue whatever education interests them and work in that field, to choose whether/when/how to have children (RIP Roe v Wade), etc. I think a lot of women take a lot of these things for granted, but they exist because of feminism.
Sadly, I think the term 'feminism' has been successfully demonized in online spaces, to the point that many think it's the same as feminazi. In part this is because the most awful and vocal part of any movement draws a lot of negative attention, and subsequently those who are against equality for women can use feminazis as a boogeyman to denigrate the feminist movement.
I don't like labels and I never considered myself a feminist but I probably am compatible to this label. I simply try to be a decent person to everyone regardless of virtually everything, and constantly ask myself whether any kind of bias or prejudice played a role in an opinion or decision I made.