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.

  • kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    8 hours ago

    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.

    • gwilikers@lemmy.ml
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      40 minutes ago

      K but once you get there, you’ll tell us if it turns out you’re not actually a person anymore, right?

  • Pika@rekabu.ru
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    8 hours ago

    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.

    • zqps@sh.itjust.works
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      3 hours ago

      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

      Modern feminism does exactly that.

      I get that people get hung up on the label, but other demographics’ issues are absolutely part of it. It’s called intersectionality.

  • Dutczar@sopuli.xyz
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    7 hours ago

    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)

  • MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works
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    12 hours ago

    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.”

  • Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    9 hours ago

    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.

  • gerryflap@feddit.nl
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    7 hours ago

    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.

  • 🔰Hurling⚜️Durling🔱@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    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.

  • steeznson@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    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.

    • MBech@feddit.dk
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      10 hours ago

      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.

  • Mmagnusson@programming.dev
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    15 hours ago

    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.

  • bstix@feddit.dk
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    12 hours ago

    I really don’t feel the need to identify myself as any sort of -ism.

    What matters more to me is how you act. It doesn’t matter if someone identifies as a feminist if they don’t act like one.

    I think I do, but I’m probably not the best to evaluate my own behavior.

    Anyway, since we’re on the topic, it recently came to my attention that most top charts for media like music, films and online content is absolutely dominated by men. For no particular reason, it’s just what people consume. I wonder why. Coming from a place that is seemingly more equal than most of the world, I’m surprised that the people here, even the women, are still consuming more content made by men than by women. So I set out to change my own consumption. Looking through my YouTube subscriptions I found that I myself was watching only content from men, so I started subscribing to more women doing content within my usual interests. I mean, I’m not looking for women doing things because they’re women, but rather women doing things that everyone might do, but they just happen to be women. It’s difficult. It feels like fighting against the algorithms just to find it, and I gotta say, a lot of the content made by women is still trying to get subscriptions based on the idea that everyone on the internet is a man. Seriously, women. When I’m searching for geeky stuff I’m not going to subscribe to your ass or breasts. Take that shit to OnlyFans or whatever. I actually want to hear or watch the topic from your perspective. And seriously, men… please behave. It’s so fucking cringe to read your lustful comments anytime a smart women dares present her face in any of the serious channels. I definitely understand why women upload less content if that’s the feedback they get.

    Well, I did manage to find some channels worth subscribing to, and at the moment I’m probably up to a third of my subscriptions being from women. I don’t think I can push it much further without having to watch things that I have no interest in or which conflicts with any of my already mentioned points. I’ll also have to acknowledge that there are differences in what topics interests men and women enough to post about or consume.

    However, finally, I would suggest anyone who ever searches for something to sometimes get the woman to explain it to you instead of choosing the man every time.

    • npdean@lemmy.today
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      10 hours ago

      However, finally, I would suggest anyone who ever searches for something to sometimes get the woman to explain it to you instead of choosing the man every time.

      Yeah, I am not downgrading my experience for the sake of it.

  • UpperBroccoli@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    18 hours ago

    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.

  • VoxAliorum@lemmy.ml
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    16 hours ago

    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.

    • steeznson@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      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.

      • VoxAliorum@lemmy.ml
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        10 hours ago

        I disagree. I don’t think people started misusing feminism because they didn’t know what it means.

  • gens@programming.dev
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    16 hours ago

    I wrote here my honest opinion only to be mocked. Fuck you all, I’m not going to answer this online ever again.

    And no, I wasn’t sexist.

      • gens@programming.dev
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        11 hours ago

        I deleted it…

        Because I said I hate the man-hating “feminism” that was popular a few years ago, and that I am a good person. Ofc you can’t be feminist if you dislike sexist women.

        That was only like 1/3 or 1/4 of what I said and you can find it if you search for the deleted reply here, as only that part is deleted.

        Edit: I restored it, you can go read and downvote now. Didn’t know you can restore.

  • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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    13 hours ago

    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.

    • zqps@sh.itjust.works
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      3 hours ago

      Feminist theory understood that a over a generation ago, and has evolved into the opposite of a “concern silo” as a result. People really just don’t look beyond the label.