Feminist Crap

A few days ago, I was perusing through Twitter on my phone before bed when I came across this tweet: "Liberal spread the wealth garbo and feminist crap all in one English Assignment. This is going to be a long semester. #help #icant". 

Now, this tweet is courtesy of one of my male friends from high school.  He and I have a long track record of disagreeing on just about every social and/or political topic imaginable, so I was not exactly surprised to see this post.  I have long since accepted the fact that the two of us see many things very differently.  However, it was the "feminist crap" part that really got under my skin.

As I said before, I was laying in bed when I read this disturbing piece of Twitter literature. And this was my thought process: "No. Don't do this. Why did you have to post this? I'm tired.  I don't have time to argue." But then I saw the most off-putting part of it all.  Among others, one of my female friends had favorited it.  I saw this as an even more blatant dig to feminism.  And I realized that every time someone refers to the word "feminist" in a negative way, it perpetuates ignorance and erases progress in the feminist movement. 

So, although I wasn't in the mood to argue, I texted the gentleman author of this tweet to set the record straight.  He told me what he doesn't like about feminism is "the over-analyzing of every single stupid sentence or gesture to make men into evil condescending dicks" and the "telling young girls what they should want for their life".  It was such a typical misinterpretation of feminism! I in turn responded to him with the sentiment that feminism is all about the freedom to choose what kind of life one wants, regardless of sex or gender. (He had no response for this, by the way.)

What I realized throughout the course of this small feminist battle is that it is important to inform even when it's inconvenient, because every single time someone uses "feminist" or "feminism" in an ill-informed or negative context it is a dig at the entire movement that stagnates progress and perpetuates sexism.  When people don't understand the core values of feminism, they tend to misuse it in ignorant or even malicious ways.  Every discussion is important, whether you're standing at a podium or responding to a tweet.