Years and years ago, when I was around 10-ish, I saw a clip from something on TV. It was a young woman and a mother figure talking, with the young woman saying

"I'm not a feminist."
"You don't think women should have equal rights?"
"That's not what I mean."
"Well then, I think you're confused about what feminism is."

Always stuck with me.

And yet here we are. Where many people associate feminism more with men hating and power grabing. So many in fact that feminism needs to remind people over and over again that "feminisim is actually about equality". Shouldn't people come to that conclusion by themselves based on the actions of the movement? We should hear from everywhere "Hell yeah, feminism! I love those people! They fight for equality!". Yet this basic principle needs to be repeated over and over again because people don't associate feminism with it

I think tracking the downvotes on this one might be illuminating

After a lot of internal deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that the only way to be fair and balanced is if you consider everyone as a human person first. That primary definition awards them all the rights and privileges of a human person.

Beyond that, "man", "woman", "non-binary", "trans" become me labels applied to the unique human person that you are interacting with. Not dissimilar to other labels, like their name.

There is no extra information applied from the label, it is merely a parameter that the specific human person prefers to have. Nothing more. It awards them no additional rights nor freedoms, and it removes no rights nor freedoms.

In the same way, race should be considered the same. A person's skin color and ethnic heritage is merely part of the definition of each specific human independently and awards no additional rights, nor freedoms, more does it take any away.

IMO, the only way to move forward is if the current generations of adults, mainly millennials and Gen Z, commit to the notion that every person is a human person first, and their rights and freedoms are assigned to them as a person. Nothing is added nor taken away by any sexual identity, or race information that any person may have, prefer, or identify as.

Then we just have to wait..... They'll die off eventually.

The feminist movement is a bit like dating apps. If it accomplishes the stated goals, the need for it to exist kind of goes away.

It always amused me that men who hated the feminism movement never decided to help it along.

My fil told me his perspective on woman changed when his daughters were born. He also told me woman should be trad wife and provide warm meals to husband after work. I immediately looked at his daughters in the room. Poor things didnt speak up and looked super uncomfortable. All I could think was "Jesus, how bad did he view woman before?"

Feminism needs to exist not only because its literally empathy but Denying half the pop opportunity is absurd given how much more they can achieve. Ppl like my fil drag humanity down.

Unfortunately when I was highly depressed and even contemplating suicide (exhausting job and bad coworkers), there were a lot of talk about putting men down, and one thing that stuck with me was when women posted about drinking "male tears" and laughing about it.

I cried a lot during that time and I felt that I was being punched when I was down.

Logically I realized that I was not the target audience, but emotionally, it hurt bad, and it left me with a big distaste for feminism.

I am way better now, but I view feminism as being separate from supporting equal rights.

At this point, I will absolutely support equal rights, as other comments in this community can attest, but I can never call my self a feminist.

You can also hate men separately though. If you want. As a side thing. You know; if you've ever had to talk to one.