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.
That just erases that, currently, women are far more oppressed than men. Men are negatively impacted by patriarchal society as well, we all stand to gain from its abolition, but erasing that it is women that are most subjugated makes room for opportunists to coopt the movement and shut down women.
This.
This is the kind of thinking that pushes men away from feminism. When there is a clear intention to favor one sex over the other, the other will obviously be much less inclined to help.
There is no intention to “favor one sex over the other.” The present system is explicitly cismale-supremacist. Any attempt to erase that weakens the movement and serves to perpetuate sexism against women and non-binary folk. This is similar to the “All Lives Matter” movement as a way to disrupt the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
It might not be the intention but modern day feminism has become so much about what women can and cannot do and how men are pigs.
No, it hasn’t. This is the way conservatives frame the feminist movement, but the actual reality of feminism is far more grounded. When you cede the narrative and legitimize the conservative viewpoint, you weaken the movement.
I am a very strong believer of feminism but I will never accept that in public. It has a strong negative reaction from many people. Actions don’t evoke a negative reaction.
Where I live, there are literally people who mock people for being feminists while sending their daughters to professional colleges, allowing them to work, letting them decide if and when to have kids, etc. I don’t know, maybe this is a cultural difference.
That just cedes ground to the socially reactionary. It’s better to organize under the label of feminism and push for the necessary change, without letting reactionaries be coddled.
What’s the point? Words don’t mean anything. Positive actions are happening, that is all that matters.
Same reason cedeing Black Lives Matter to All Lives Matter is harmful.