127

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I place the result of 'What's an egalitarian?' as better than the die roll as to whether they will take it as one or the other, or even a third interpretation. If I say egalitarian, and they can't define it, they'll probably go into a questioning mode, which helps make them more open to discussion. The number of people who could define it AND be against it would be minimal. On the other hand, feminist has become almost an epithet to a significant chunk of the English-speaking world. It's a word that shuts down empathy and critical thinking for those people, even if they couldn't define it, which your anecdote helps show it can be hard for people to do at any rate.

this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
127 points (92.1% liked)

Asklemmy

49957 readers
596 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS