I'd like to consider myself a feminist and I often find myself in discussions with people (men and women) and a few times I've found myself in the situation of a woman who presents herself as a feminist holding one or two strong anti-feminist views.

"I believe in feminism, but believe women are better at domestic work and fit the role of a stay at home parent more so naturally the man needs to work to provide" or similar.

Normally at this time in a conversation, I don't really know what to say. It feels to me that I have a few options:

1. No comment. This effectively means I'm removing myself from the conversation, which seems counterproductive as feminism needs men to support it as well.

2. Point out hypocrisy at the risk of being seen as mansplaining feminism to a woman. This is obviously a terrible look and in the past when I tried to do this, it made things tense.

Neither of these options seem good and I honestly don't know how to handle these situations. It's not my intention to become the feminism police, but it does feel like people holding traditional values and dressing them up as feminism only weakens the concept of feminism so we should be calling out hypocrisy, right?

We call out men for hypocrisy, so shouldn't we be calling out women too?

I'd love your help here. Thanks!

I see many random edits where it shows women as inherently overly emotional, constantly panicking, and incompetent, or a female character who fits a misogynistic view of how women are to them (like soft and weak) and conpare it to men or male characters who are the opposite.

One i just daw is "when women face rejection" and the girl is crying, panicking, and gasping for air. While the man who was rejected was completely stoic and said "there's always another".

These are cheesy edits and clearly some sigma male redpill bs, but is it a serious thing?

Does it push harmful stereotypes that can alienate people, especially young men who consume this?

There's no contradiction between the complete absence of unjust reasons for sexual or romantic exclusion and the complete absence of sexual or romantic involvement.

Someone could recognize and reject every unjust consideration that influenced their reluctance to have sex or pursue romance with particular people and still have no interest in becoming involved with any of them.

Removing an unjust consideration that influenced someone's reluctance doesn't itself generate sexual or romantic interest, much less establish the mutual willingness required for involvement.

sympathy? or contempt? or what?

Hi folks. I'm a masculine NB late 30's with a half sister who just turned 15. We live on different sides of the globe so I only get to see her 2-3 times each year. Her mom (my stepmom) is really awesome but came from a religious background and is not super plugged in to feminist resources. My sister is not currently the type to read dry volumes or watch lengthy video essays, so I'm trying to find Instagrams, YouTube channels, tiktok follows, or books with teen girls in mind to either pass to her directly or pass to my stepmom to then pass to my sister.

I want her to get a head start with the tools and knowledge to understand gender, men, empowerment, danger, etc. Feminism and gender studies explain so much of our lives.

I'm also welcome to any advice and ideas on how to help my sister access feminist resources and just be a good long distance big brother in general.

I read this youtube comment

"Back when we used to watch Middle Eastern TV dramas, there wasn’t a single actress wearing a hijab, and you wouldn’t even see the shadow of a hijabi woman on camera, I used to ask my mother about this back in 1998: “Mom, why is it that when we visit Middle Eastern countries, 80% of the women wear hijabs, but you never see that reflected in TV dramas? There isn’t even a single hijabi news anchor or TV presenter on any Middle Eastern channel.”

The reason is because practicing Muslim hijabi Muslim are forbidden from singing, and acting in films and TV shows or interacting with men because of religious reasons and even practicing Muslim men if they are fundamentalists they are also forbidden from singing, and acting in films and TV shows or interacting with women.

Is the solution for non-hijabi women to wear hijabs to represent women who cannot represent themselves?

So, where would you suggest starting with Butler?

Hi so a bit about myself I’m still too young to be categorised as a leftist or rightist or anything in that matter I’m a stem student and have my fair share of reading abt the feminist movement
and would categorise myself as a feminist

So the question still lies is the mere existence of a term for female suffrage a failure of society because in an ideal world equalists would be the norm and ppl wouldn’t have to fight for the sheer right and still we are far far from reaching any ideal scenario , i am a single child and i learnt to cook clean and take care of myself form my mother and maternal grand mom and pops ( THE BARE MINIMUM ) And i see posts on ig like if a man cooks marry him , pause does this not
Show the deep rooted patriarchy in this society if a women cooks it’s their job but if a man does it’s suddenly treated as if he is freakin Harry Potter i was never taught that it’s a women’s job to do all this and still people do think it is and many women in south east Asia Africa are still living this hell of a life , so we shouldn’t be celebrating the existence of ‘equality’ in a first world country
We should rather advocate for feminist rights outside of the already semi equalist society’s like Europe and focus on third world nations like Pakistan Bangladesh Kenya India etc

These are my opinion and i want you to brutally roast the hell out of me if im even slightly wrong in your opinion because i would love to see different perspectives on feminism to in return grow my understanding of the subject.
Thanks guys!

Are there many logical fallacies and complaints about feminism.

Can you debunk or add to an argument that relies on little or flawed logic?

One is the claim that women/girls get better grades. When researched, it is thought that poverty (low SES) affects boys more adversely than girls. I often think, "Well, do something about it," as I went out into the real world and tried to help with X.

If it had concerned me that much when I was young, I might have gone for a grad degree, researched the problem and its causes, voted in ways that would support funding for studies and programs, advocated for funding for boys from low-income families to help the situation, or helped directly.

It is such lazy thinking.

It happens with arguments about the draft, wealth gaps, white men being discriminated against with government programs that help minorities? Can you think of another?

So people are mean. And this is just a question for people to relax with.

If you have any ideas for this please put them down.

Is it really appropriate for a charity that started to benefit males, be staffed mostly by women and have it's resources be diverted to women's health? This seems to be whatever the opposite of feminism would be, or maybe...opportunistic feminism?

To clarify; Bonnie Blue is having a child. For anyone unaware she is an adult movie star who had intercourse with 1000 men in one day. Now this part I could truly care less about, it is just sex; all I ask is that nobody spreads anything with that event.

The part I question is when people comment things such as: “I feel bad for their kids.” or “That poor kid.”. These comments could seem genuinely caring about the child, but it also places all the blame on her as well. Why is this?

Movies and shows comments on bullies all the time, yet it’s only the mother’s fault that kids are into gross stuff and won’t mind their own business? This goes for most pornstars as well, why do they always get the flak for having kids; instead of parents teaching their kids to not attack others for their environment.

We don’t say the same for actors,influencers, or even politicians who have kids during their time as a figure. Adult movie stars are people too, they deserve to have the chance to bring new life to the world; it’s only the women too, why?

There are multiple men in that industry who also have kids, never seen any comments saying “Their poor kids.”. Kids should learn to accept or at least not attack others for any reason unless needed, such as being bullied themselves.

Tldr: Women like Bonnie Blue get blame for kids getting bullied, but not the actual bullies/parents, why?

One example is women weren't allowed to work. There were plenty of women with jobs prior to WW2 it's just they weren't paid much and they were not allowed in other industries and institutions. Stay at home wives were not the norm.

UN Women recently posted that 1 in 4 civilians killed in conflict in 2025 was a woman or girl. Why frame the statistic around female victims when men make up the majority of direct war deaths? Shouldn’t an organisation advocating gender equality also acknowledge male victims and explain the broader context? Is this legitimate advocacy for women, or does it reinforce a selective narrative about whose suffering deserves attention?

Hi AskFeminists, I’ve been hearing discourse regarding people distancing themselves from “Woke 1”, which seems to refer to the online social justice movement between 2014 - 2024. Im interested in hearing your thoughts on feminism during this period

In this period, I feel like lots of very important concepts were brought into the cultural conversation, namely intersectionality, recognition of trans people, a systematic understanding of gender dynamics, #MeToo, etc.

That being said, several reactionary movements sprung up during this period.

I’m curious to hear the thoughts of feminists today on these issues:

1. Why are some people trying to distance the modern social justice movement (Woke 2) with Woke 1?
2. Did feminism as a movement “gain ground” during Woke 1?
3. Were the reactionary movements a natural outcome due to the content of feminist messaging? Or could these ideas have been introduced to the cultural conversation with a less severe reactionary response?

Edit: I’m a bit disappointed in how this question was received. I essentially was interested in hearing your thoughts on feminist activism has changed in recent history. Nearly all of you instead quibbled with the definition of “Woke 1”. I wanted to examine whether feminist activism has fundamentally changed, but it seems that we were unable to get there

So what are your thoughts on gender exclusive spaces or activities?

For example, my son is in an elementary school that hosts a "girls on the run" club and one day after school last year he mentioned that he wished he could join. I told him I was sorry and offered that the school also had co-ed cross country and track and field that he could do instead. His response was that girls on the run is just for fun while the others are competitive and he doesn't want to be competitive. I told him I was sorry but not everything is open to everyone.

Similarly but also the opposite, as a male, at work I've gotten random invites to various lunch time events that range from career development to purely social that were clearly aimed at women but included the somewhat standard "all are welcome" wording. I've personally never believed the all are welcome wording, either inside or outside of work, is ever really honest and it is only included to avoid HR or legal complaints. So it comes across as "you're invited because we have to but you're not welcome" and thus I've never even thought about participating. I'll say I'm generally fine with not being welcome although I'd prefer they cull the email list rather than, effectively, be dishonest. As an aside, I'll add that if my wife wanted me to join her and participate in a public event advertised in a similar way it would turn into an argument since she would read the "all are welcome" while I would read the "Women's..." (or similar).

Personally I would prefer for children that either they not have gender exclusive things, at least for elementary public schools, or they provide an equivalent or similar offer for the other gender.

For adults, my opinion is more of a "do what you want" but I'd rather not be lied to. I also have a strong belief of "if I'm not wanted here I don't want to be here". Basically, don't invite me or state I'm welcome and then imply I'm not. And I get it that legal requirement may not allow that in certain contexts, but rather than saying "all are welcome" be honest and say something like, "we are legally obligated to state that this [thing] is open to all but we would prefer men not participate" and then own your decision rather than coat it in language for plausible deniability.

This question was triggered based on a post that has gotten to the main reddit page but I've been thinking about this issue since my son talked about it with me a year ago. I also realize that I'm only talking about things that are women exclusive since that's what I have direct personal experience with and I don't think I've ever personally seen anything advertised in a way to imply it would be for men or boys only and which didn't have a notional equivalent for women and girls; and in the case of my son's baseball and soccer leagues ( neither of which are associated with his school), they had a few girls on some of the "boys" teams (and no one seemed to care), in addition to having separate girls' softball and soccer leagues.

I find it very strange the fact that the fact is used as a gotcha when women that don't want to become parents can simply abort so it is obvious that women will be a bigger percentage of single parents

EDIT: i am talking about unplanned pregnancies

Discussion not a debate. Just had a thought that I want other opinions on. It's not coherent or well thought out.

Men commit most of the sexual crimes and women receive most of the sexual violence abuse and harassment these are facts. I'm trying to get into the headspace of why they would commit such acts and I've come up with some conclusions. They must be irrational, self centered and cynic.

I can't exactly say for certain but I would like to think most men in my friend group are self aware enough not to do this I've yet to even see them cat-call anyone so I'd hate to think they'd do worse. What I'm mainly trying to get at is what if these types of men with these personality traits are the ones that cause the most harm to women because 1 man can create at least 5 victims, they usually don't have a past of only one victim they learnt this got away with it and continue.

As I'm writing I understand it sounds like a "not all men" argument but what if it's two truths its " too many men " commiting it and "too many victims" not in a it's the victims fault, as in these men attack too many people in general (90% of sexual crimes).

This is not me saying I'm right, this is me having a thought and wanting a discussion on why I might be wrong.

The trope where the wife is being harrased or attacked and he pulls in saving her and pretty much, or actually doed say; "she's mine". Even if he said it ouy of love is that still misogynistic?

And the story trope where the wife or girl exists souley to be used to motivate or push the male character is also misogynistic?

I’ve been thinking about how misogyny in music is criticised, and I’m curious about how intersectional feminism approaches this issue.
In some genres of rap, it’s relatively common to hear women referred to as “bitches” or “hoes,” or to hear lyrics that portray women as disposable or primarily useful for sex. Yet, when a mainstream pop artist such as Harry Styles or Shawn Mendes were to release a song containing similarly degrading lyrics, I suspect the feminists reaction could be quite different, with greater reputational consequences.
Could this difference partly be explained by the influence of intersectionality and the understandable desire to avoid reinforcing racial stereotypes about Black men? Is there a risk that, in trying to protect marginalised groups from racial prejudice, some people become more hesitant to criticise misogynistic attitudes expressed by members of those groups, while feeling more comfortable holding white men accountable? The double standards don’t make sense to me. A lot of feminists even label not liking rap music as racist

If I believe that the soul of a foetus inhabits the body sometime during pregnancy (3-4 months), and that after that period we are dealing with 2 living. How does that fit in a feminist framework?