Are you a feminist? It depends how you ask – While just 35% of Britons identify as a feminist, 83% believe men and women should be equal in every way
https://yougov.co.uk/society/articles/51745-are-you-a-feminist-it-depends-how-you-ask
Posted by Anony_mouse202
37 Comments
Suppose we’ll wait to see what happens with conscription
This is interesting:
>Around two in five men aged 18-29 (37%) say they are a feminist when asked the direct question (i.e. the word-only group); this level of self-identification decreases the older one gets, with only 22% of men aged 60 and above sharing this view.
>In contrast, between 80-88% of men aged 50 and above are more likely to think men and women should have equal rights (the definition-only group) compared to 75% males aged 18-29.
>This pattern is also evident amongst women of a similar age, with 88% those aged 50 and above saying everyone should be treated equally (the definition-only group) versus 83% of 18-29 year old women.
The definition of feminism has changed in many people’s eyes since the third and fourth wave. I believe in complete equality for men and women but I do not identify as a feminist as I don’t agree with all of the radical new things they want.
Yeah feminism has some negative connotations these days so makes sense some people (who are definitionally feminist) don’t want to self identify as such.
I want as many people to have an equal opportunity and not everyone to have an equal outcome. Genders make different preferences so the outcome will never be even.
Anybody that tries to force an equal outcome is merely following their personal agenda and using ideology to sway people to their cause.
Well that is because feminists **do not** believe men and women should be equal – they think women are inherently better, and support advancing women even at the expense of men and equality.
When I was a teenager I made it a point to say ‘I am not a feminist, I am egalitarian.’ As a 30 year old adult I am more than happy identifying as a feminist.
I suspect this is heavily skewed by age. I would imagine a lot of young males don’t want to identify as one because of insecurity and because of the idea that they don’t support ‘radical woke feminism.’
As most people mature they realise what a load of bollocks that is. If you judged every community by its fringes they’d all appear insane.
Well are men and women equal in every way? No, that’s basic biology.
Should they have equal rights and opportunities in a modern society? Sure.
Can’t wait for all the comments talking about how feminists are bad, actually
If you’re asked if you’re a feminist by a feminist, and you say you are not, but you are an egalitarian, they tend to get annoyed.
I think for a lot of people we would say we were first or second wave feminists, but the modern direction of feminism is not all that appealing to many, and it’s also bizarrely divisive to say.
I stopped calling myself a feminist years ago after the #KillAllMen stuff. That was my final straw.
We should be equal, but I refuse to be lumped in with open misandrists that hate me for my sex.
Because to me, modern feminism is trying to make men and women the same. Which they not, they’re very different. You can be different but equal, and that’s what the majority of us believe in.
I suppose it’s a good example of labels and how they get poisoned.
Like people were actually very positive about a lot of Jeremy Corbyns policies if you avoided using the word ‘Socialism’. And ‘Corbyn’.
The question is more revealing of the power of language than anything political. Probe even slightly and you’ll find that practically no-one believes men and women are, should, or even could be, equal in every way, but ask the question flatly like this and the implication is that any other answer makes you a bad person.
While some notion of egalitarianism is pretty much baked into our social consciousness, even if its a bit inconsistent, feminism does not necessarily benefit much from this because it is very obviously not concerned with equality, despite its protests to the contrary. If you say “the real definition of feminism means that equality thing you all say you agree with” more people will say they believe in that than would otherwise call themselves feminists but you can play that game with pretty much any word.
I’m a feminist and I believe men and women should be equal, that’s what feminism is afterall. The new waves of feminism have tried to make it more than that, and we should remind them that such a goal is not feminist at all. Feminism is for men and women, we all deserve equal rights. Let’s fight for just that
Always equality until only men are forced into war
Edit: if you’re going to complain about a fact then please keep it to yourself I don’t want to see it in my notifications
I was looking at the previous version of this survey recently. It’s more of a semantics thing really.
I guess feminist is a bit of a loaded word to many.
A lot of that is because the feminist movement has gone beyond equality. When i think about it I think cringe youtube videos and that guy at uni who tried to sell me a cake for twice the price as my female friend, then got shitty when she just bought me one.
It’s the word, not the original idea.
That’s because feminism doesn’t mean gender/sex equality any more. It means at best selective equality for women; at worst establishing female privilege everywhere and anywhere possible.
“Equal in every way”.
In what ways? Then exceptions and differences emerge eg biology, group life cycle differences, protections, social roles etc etc…
The auestion is flawed ie it has to be asked because the question’s implicit assumption is that men and women are different and are treated differently or else there would be no need for such a question.
The counter to that is to say, the question is “fighting against oppression of women by men“ then it is a loaded question and rhetorical which I think is what the 83% is measuring.
For example I would say a mother raising a child to be well developed and a good human being is extremely high value under represented by society in monetary terms. That is a massive difference to men eg men often can work in roles where profits can grow non-linearly in contrast to a woman looking after children daily and constantly ie does not scale but is often more valuable imho. See?
This statement that feminism is really equality is itself missing a more essential nature underneath. In fact the above tacit fact is probably what so much feminism promotion ultimately boils down to without ever being explicit in clear verbal and literal conjecture…
I’m not a feminist I’m an egalitarian because feminism as movement is at this point a space full of men hating.
Useful info. 48% of Brits are idiots and 17% of Brits are evil.
There are different levels of feminism.
There’s feminism that preaches equality, that wants society to acknowledge their femininity but have no affect on how society treats them, other than as equals.
There’s also radical feminism, that takes that to the extreme, and a subset of radical feminism that treats transgender folk as an enemy to them
I imagine most people are into the idea, but think feminism as a label is pejorative to that idea or think feminism is now an enemy of men, when most of the time it isn’t even like that.
Even without the definition 11% of people don’t think women and men should get equal pay?
Statistically, at least one of these people probably got lost in a revolving door today.
As well as what a lot of people have said about issues surrounding radical feminists poinsioning the word, i think there’s also another factor
Many people I’ve spoken to would only consider someone a feminist if they actually engaged with feminist theory/literature, went to protests, were politically active etc, so someone who believes in equality but isn’t actively doing anything wouldn’t count as feminist.
Part of my job is candidate selection and I’ve been forced to choose *significantly less qualified* (in some cases straight up under-qualified or unqualified) engineers just because they’re women and our engineering department is 70% male.
In one instance I was told from higher-ups to pick a female candidate for an intermediate role, and the only female candidate who bothered to do the competency test was a graduate who got a 2:1 with no relevant experience.
Total equality for men and women hasn’t been on the menu for a damn long time. Women have special career pathways in STEM only comparable to men with highly influential parents.
The word feminism is itself sexist, that’s why I would not and never have called myself one, there are many issues that men face and areas where women do have the advantage, the problems of *both* sexes need fixing.
I’m an equalist, you should have equal rights, etc no matter what gender, race etc
I only subscribe to the dictionary definition of feminism. ‘The advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes’.
Speaking as a self-identified feminist, I’m OK with this. The important thing is wanting equality regardless of sex. If you’re on board with that, then it’s all good with me, regardless of whether you identify as a feminist or not.
Almost like everyone knows that Feminism =/= Equality…
I would say no, because I don’t actively fight for rights or read up on it.
But it’s true – I don’t really know what a feminist is technically
Does equality cover females being forced into conscription and national service too?
I dont understand how people are saying the feminist movement is too extreme when there are still millions of women who are regarded as second class citizens because they are women.
Feminism is such a wide umbrella that both it’s supporters and critics can claim almost any belief or position is feminist. It becomes this motte and bailey argument where one moment feminism is defined as “believing men and women should be treated equally” and the next you have to buy into a huge range of secondary language and beliefs ranging from “Patriarchy theory”, to “the Duluth model” and disagreeing or questioning even one of them makes you verboten.
My irl experiences with self-declared feminists have been overwhelmingly negative and what I’ve seen them say and how I’ve seen them act in the media has been even worse.
It seems to me the loudest advocates of feminism don’t even care particularly about about feminism they just use it as a convenient prop to bully others.
To be fair I’m sure there are also a lot of people quietly getting on with good work or living their lives who have been inspired by feminism or it’s teachings. I’ve got no ill will towards them and wish them the best.
Personally I believe men and women should be treated fairly and equally but I’d never consider myself as a feminist.
Are you a men’s rights activist? It depends how you ask – While just 9% of Britons identify as a men’s rights activist, 83% believe men and women should be equal in every way
Men and women are not equal, in the same way that cats and dogs are not equal. They’re two very different things, so they cannot be directly compared.
I don’t regard one sex as being superior to the other, but I have different standards and expectations of each. This is in the same way that I don’t expect a cat to herd sheep, nor do I expect a dog to catch mice.
I am not a feminist. “Gender equality” is a nonsensical objective, so abstract as to be completely meaningless.
Then word is too heavily associated with Millie Tant types, privileged people punching down and people obsessed with transgender issues which most of us never actually encounter.