Be different, be your own woman, be unique! #11 by Fufunha on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

The issue is that there are ignorant and sometimes completely shitty people from all sorts of backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, and social niches who call themselves feminists yet only adhere to parts of the creed, or act as if calling themselves feminists makes them automatically better people.

The new movement is about acceptance, education, love, and eliminating all the bigotry of society around the world, but some of the older movements were exclusionary, such as marginalizing transgender, agender, and non-binary people, keeping out lesbians and bisexuals while acknowledging gay men, or excluding and marginalizing people based on their race and/or religion. For example, in many of the earliest protests black and Hispanic women that wanted to join in the matches were relegated to the back of the procession to keep them out of the public eye. So therefore there are people who are feminists but they are not part of the current, all-inclusive and accepting movement.

In my personal experience there are more than a few people that call themselves feminists to look good or to legitimize abusive and bigoted behavior by declaring themselves more feminist than those they are degrading. As an ethnically Jewish, atheist, disabled, bisexual, dyadic, cisgender, female feminist, I have heard all sorts of shit from other members of the feminist community as well as the anti-feminist community on why I don't count and why I should stay quietly in the background, or pick a side, or go to church, or go and kill myself for daring to exist. And I have friends who are also of "unacceptable" races, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, and so on who have recieved similar treatment of greater or lesser degree depending on the scenario. There are people who are well known in certain parts of the feminist community that are anti-semetic, racist, misogynistic, ableist, classicist, homophobic, transphobic, acephobic, and much more. The list of possible sources of bigotry is too long for me to put all of them down without making this a five-page essay.

My point in saying all this is not to contradict your statement that feminism is about being good and accepting and stopping things like bigotry, slavery, rape, abuse and the like. That is still true, and very important. The positivity of the ideals of feminism is some things to appreciate, admire, and keep close to heart in times of trouble. But people need to remember that while there are many, many good people in the feminist community, there are also numerous bad apples in the basket that cause more than their share of hurt, chaos, and potentially dangerous setbacks to people inside and outside of our community. And in many cases they are even harder to deal with than MRAs and other anti-feminist groups, because they see themselves as righteous, they frequently have connection among other feminists, and in many cases they have contributed to integral parts of the movement and the successes gained over the years. Educating them or removing them from a position they can use to harm others is not an easy process and is an ongoing uphill battle.