Stereotypes

The greatest stereotypes about feminism from my point of view are feminists loathing men, rejecting motherhood, and being argumentative and angry all the time. People who usually stereotyped feminism see this all the time and the media enforces these stereotypes.

Like Valerie said, the biggest stereotype probably would be that feminists hate men. I don't really see how the media enforces this since many major media sources tend to praise feminist events and movements.

Another stereotype is that feminists are fat and can't find romance. This stereotype is pretty silly in my opinion, but I have heard it a lot.

I agree with both Valerie and Fatima, people definitely use the "man-hating" stereotype as a way to justify their misogyny or to qualify feminists as "Femi-nazis". It seems like this is really perpetuated by ignorance and traditional beliefs about gender roles rather than the media.

On the other hand, I believe the media is equally responsible in creating a different stereotype; that feminism is now "trending".

You can walk into just about any girls' clothing store and see instantly a cluster of feminist shirts that say things like "girls bite back" and "we fight harder", and while this is great, I know from experience that many of the girls who buy these shirts are doing it simply to follow in the footsteps of their celebrity heroes like Beyonce or Rowan Blanchard — both of whom have boldly labeled themselves as feminists. I mean, yes, of course it's better that more of these messages are circulating, but if the people wearing them are oblivious to or even skeptical of the meaning behind them, all we're doing is encouraging a really passive-aggressive form of supporting female empowerment.

The only way, in my opinion, of removing this SJW stereotype from modern feminism is by everyone who calls themself a feminist actively trying to further gender equality though actions rather than social media posts or t-shirt slogans.

Hi guys,

I definitely understand what you're saying with the stereotype that feminists hate men. I want to clarify that I don't believe this to be true of most feminists, however I also want to point out the reasons behind why feminists have such a negative perception from a lot of people. A great deal of feminists respond crudely and harshly, as seen in the Women's March (where feminists literally walked around in vagina costumes, among other things). In feminists' responses to non-feminists, I have found that many of them come off as rude and condescending, and, overwhelmingly, entitled (of course, this is only my personal opinion). So I'm not saying that feminism in itself is bad, I'm simply saying that leaders/members of the movement could benefit by looking at some of the criticism and trying to improve the movement rather than simply saying "this stereotype isn't true" - because in some instances, it really is.

-Cassidy

I definitely agree with Cassidy on her point. Feminism is certainly fighting for a worthy cause, that is gender equity. However, the movement doesn't come off as very self-critical to me. Of course, not every feminist hates men. However, there are many feminists who DO hate men and come off as entitled, and that's a serious problem that most feminists seem willing to ignore.

Additionally, feminists also seem very willing to alienate conservative women. For example, I believe the Women's March did allow any pro-life groups to join. Additionally, many conservatives I know DO want to support gender equity, but the entire movement and ideology seems very alienating. This alienation does contribute a lot to the negative stereotypes that surround feminists.

In order to remove these stereotypes of feminists being entitled man-haters, feminists really must be willing to resolve these issues.

I agree with many of the points made above. Feminism, by definition, is the movement for equality of sexes. There are definitely some people out there who take this to the extreme and fit that stereotype of feminists hating men, but I do not believe this is an accurate representation of feminism.

Fatima and Cassidy, I concur that feminism carries certain negative labels that do not align with the main idea of equality. How would you want to see these issues with the image of movement addressed?

Also, I find it interesting that only girls have commented on the post so far... It would be enlightening to hear about stereotypes of feminism from a male's perspective

Hi everyone!

I totally agree with Katie's perspective. Feminism is a term that represents all sexes in general and gender equality in general. But I have observed that people are not comfortable using the term "feminism" and/or identifying themselves as "feminists" just because it seems to be a men-hating movement to them. It is a stereotype that I personally have observed in males and upon questioning on how they felt about feminism, most replies were that they stand for equality but would not want to call themselves as feminists because just the term in itself sounds too "girly" , which to me does not really make much sense. We've been using the word "man" to represent all humans, regardless of their genders for centuries, so why is it hard to accept the word "feminism" , which stands for equality of all genders too?

"Go to the kitchen to make a sweet dish and Care the kids". I am not completely the feminism but I hate all discrimination among men and women. We are the same living on the earth.