Like I said, I'm not certain if I would label myself a feminist, but I do believe in many of the same values
If someone asks if I'm a feminist, I say yes. I believe in the gender-equality part of feminism, and these days, the only people asking me are ones who would insist that feminism = gender equality (and it saves arguments on what feminism by saying yes to what they mean rather than what they say).
I won't independently call myself a feminist, though. I say that I believe in gender equality and that I'm willing to fight for it. "Feminism" is immediately associated with the female, and why would I describe my beliefs in gender equality with a term that only deals with roughly half the population? This is something a great many self-identified feminists take issue with, although not one has ever been able to articulate to me why in a way that wasn't blatantly sexist (another reason I'm not interested in independently associating myself with feminism as a movement).
That's a very good point, and something I wasn't quite able to articulate when writing the above post.
While I believe in many of the same things as feminists, feminism looks primarily at women. It doesn't necessarily or by definition include people who lie elsewhere along the gender spectrum. Obviously, males aren't included in feminism, but transpeople and those who don't identify as either woman or man are left out as well - the gender minorities. (And yes, transpeople may identify as a woman, or have been a girl/woman once, but having changed genders puts them outside of the traditional "man" or "woman" box that society imposes, making them a minority.) I just now thought of this, but maybe some of my reluctance to identify as a feminist is becuase I don't identify as a woman. Granted, anyone of any gender can be a feminist, but it's largely women who are, and I don't want to be given that label either.
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If someone asks if I'm a feminist, I say yes. I believe in the gender-equality part of feminism, and these days, the only people asking me are ones who would insist that feminism = gender equality (and it saves arguments on what feminism by saying yes to what they mean rather than what they say).
I won't independently call myself a feminist, though. I say that I believe in gender equality and that I'm willing to fight for it. "Feminism" is immediately associated with the female, and why would I describe my beliefs in gender equality with a term that only deals with roughly half the population? This is something a great many self-identified feminists take issue with, although not one has ever been able to articulate to me why in a way that wasn't blatantly sexist (another reason I'm not interested in independently associating myself with feminism as a movement).
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While I believe in many of the same things as feminists, feminism looks primarily at women. It doesn't necessarily or by definition include people who lie elsewhere along the gender spectrum. Obviously, males aren't included in feminism, but transpeople and those who don't identify as either woman or man are left out as well - the gender minorities. (And yes, transpeople may identify as a woman, or have been a girl/woman once, but having changed genders puts them outside of the traditional "man" or "woman" box that society imposes, making them a minority.) I just now thought of this, but maybe some of my reluctance to identify as a feminist is becuase I don't identify as a woman. Granted, anyone of any gender can be a feminist, but it's largely women who are, and I don't want to be given that label either.
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