Eliza goes out to protests all the time. She waves her picket signs in the air saying that women are oppressed by the patriarchy and need equal rights to men. She shouts down the misogynistic men’s rights activists who don’t care about women and are claiming their special male privilege. She has written articles about how women still aren’t there yet and have a long way to go.
She is a feminist.
Cassie is a stay-at-home mum who loves her kids and supports her husband’s job. She enjoys going out with her friends and cooking food for her family. She supports gender equality and respects men and believes that men and women should be equal. She feels that as a woman she has to spend more time with her children and do more of the housework because that is what is expected of her, and at times that can be infuriating. She loves her husband but feels that if they were to separate than it would be only fair for her to gain custody of her children since she is the mother and all kids needs their mothers – but of course her husband would see the kids on weekends.
She is a feminist.
Angela is a university student. She feels that as a black woman she has the shitter hand in the pile. As a History student she has been looking at the systematic oppression of black people against white people, as well as oppression of women against men, and capitalism against the working class. She was once sexually assaulted in a club – she was really drunk and a guy put his hand up her skirt like the sexist pig he was. What an arsehole. She loves her guy friends but she wishes they would realise the historical privilege guys have had over girls, particularly in terms of work and education.
She is a feminist.
See post: How Feminism Has Lied To Women (and Men)
It is not uncommon for people within the same movement to call others in the movement ‘not real feminists’ or ‘not real Muslims’ or ‘not real socialists.’ But isn’t that unfair? How is the ISIS member any less of a Muslim then the respectable father and husband who goes to Mosque regularly, works as an accountant and volunteers at his local soup kitchen?
If a person calls themselves a feminist/Muslim/socialist then who are you to tell them that they are wrong, just because they don't support YOUR view of a certain ideology?
There are many different types of feminists – radical feminists; liberal feminists, intersectional feminists, socialist feminists, black feminists, trans feminists, post-modern feminists, Marxist feminists. There are self-identifying first, second, third and possibly fourth wave feminists. (The 'waves' of feminism are debatable in themselves. Some may class the current feminist movement as 'third wave', while others may describe it as the new 'fourth' wave internet SJW feminsm.)
Within the feminist movement, each of these varying groups of feminists disagree with each other and claim to have different goals. The liberal/egalitarian feminists claim that they just want women to be equal to men and don’t hate men. The radical feminists will smirk ‘misandry’ and say that the liberals aren’t doing ‘enough’ and need to have a fuller impact.
The media shines a light on the one that shouts the loudest, but isn’t writing them off as ‘not real feminists’ or ‘not a real Muslim’ a cop out? They’re still part of the same ideological movement, just a different strand.
Christianity has lots of different strands; Catholics, Protestants, Methodists, C of E, Evangelicals, Anglicans, 7th Day Adventists – and historically they have had feuds against each other. Henry the 8th made up the Church of England just so he could divorce his wife which led him to falling out with the Pope. But he called himself a Christian, so wasn’t he still a Christian? Who was the Pope to tell him he wasn’t a ‘real’ Christian despite the fact that he said he was?