Just the word is seemingly enough to start an argument over, whether it’s about differing kinds of feminism or the question of if it’s even needed. When feminism is brought up I’ve seen people avoid it in conversation a lot. As someone not raised to be heavily involved with the conversation of gender I’ve experienced responses to feminism in so many ways that weren’t actually related to the subject itself. As expressed in the article Full Frontal Feminism, people seem to consider “feminist” to be an insult. It almost resembles terms like “gay” and “queer” in how people assign a sort of social stigma to being associated to the subject even if you’re not. Before high school which was when I actually came to meet people who were openly gay or feminist, I was just as ignorant to it all as so many people still are to this day. Today I like to pretend that I never had the kind of opinions and beliefs I had about groups I was completely ignorant of but I do get to have the unique experience of an ignorant male being brought into the world feminism and gender and learning about a huge and inclusive community.
It’s very strange to me hearing about “man hating feminists” today when in my experience, most feminists are more open and accepting as people. I think the many stereotypes made surrounding feminists are made just like stereotypes about any other group, people who know nothing about feminists who happen to dislike feminists start to draw connections to superfluous details that have nothing to do with anything. There’s no Feminist Mandate requiring body hair and burning bras- if there is I was never told. To me as a person, feminists are people who support the idea of women being equal figures in society. In general I like to give people a chance before deciding I dislike them, regardless of how they look. I think other folks could learn a lot if they took a less stubborn stance when confronted by groups they’re unfamiliar with. As a child I had no idea that gender wasn’t considered a binary thing, or even that there was a possibility of anything other than male and female so if others were willing to be more open minded they’d learn about a large community they never even knew existed.
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