Are you a feminist? In a world of over-sexualized media, zealous activism and opinioned starlets it’s important to know where you stand on the issue of feminism. Before embarking on such a hot topic, one must understand what feminism truly is.  A study was conducted in 1989 where women were asked if they were feminists. Though 33% of women did not consider themselves feminists 94% of women supported equal pay while 90% of women were for free daycare in the workplace, and 82% of women saw job discrimination as an issue.  “I’m not a feminist but…” is a commonly used phrase when discussing issues of gender equalities. It may create dissonance for the anti-feminist public to understand that according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary feminism is simply “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities”.

The term feminism may be unpopular due to a lack of understanding what being a feminist means. In fact, there are common misperceptions that exist among the population that refuses to identify with feminism. Certainly many people agree with the ideas of the feminist movement but disagree with the term Feminism. Feminism, as a term, has achieved negative connotations through two main drivers: the dichotomous culture that exists in the western world and over-zealous feminist activists that support the feminist cause as well as extremist views attached to femininity or lack thereof.

Within our culture, we can see traces of in-group and out-group behavior. The in-group being white, middle class, man, and the out-group being everyone else. American culture has views this in-group and out-groups as a dichotomy- such can be viewed in feminism. Of course, the gender dichotomy is entirely illogical in terms of gender roles as the roles of men and women are not opposites. Though still there is a stigma of feminists as man-haters and an assumption that to agree with an activist promoting female rights is to disagree with males. Thus the term “man-hating” is associated with a cause that is separated from men.

Not only is the dichotomous relationship promoted by anti-feminist but certain feminists as well. Often overzealous feminists are rejected in social media outlets for aggressively promoting extremist ideas and labeling them with the feminist brand. Though such aggressive expressions of feminism may be prominent on the Internet, it is not the main branch of feminism. Though with an increase in social media activists it is difficult to determine what “being a feminist” really entails. It can be definitively stated that most feminists are not a misandrist, in addition, they enjoy sex and being feminine. Misandrist feminists may, in addition to their personal definitions of feminism, promote the traditional feminist cause relating to social, political and economic equality between men and women. Because misandrist or bra-burning feminists promote both ideas, social media users are often confused with the definition of feminism.

As a result of the ever-growing ambiguity in the feminist movement, a strong anti-feminist movement has persecuted feminism by labeling it as an extremist view that goes against half the population of the earth. A popular anti-feminist Tumblr (womenagainstfeminsim.tumblr.com) publishes pictures of women holding up signs that illustrate why they do not need feminism. Most commonly expressed amongst the women supporting this site is their desire to denote a “hate-movement”.  Some women propose that the feminist movement is unnecessary because inequality does not exist within the western world, and the women of the feminist movement are simply victimizing themselves. The majority of these anti-feminists do not disagree with gender-equality, they simply dislike the ideas that are often attached it -man-hating, expecting special treatment as women, gender uniformity and female supremacy- none of which are supported by the feminist movement. Feminism has earned a bad name from distasteful bloggers and social-media abusers that label themselves as feminists. The female/male dichotomy only strengthens the public’s misunderstanding of the movement and allows for feminists and anti-feminists alike to slur the meaning of feminism.