I Guess I’m The Crazy Feminist You Tend To Avoid

Hey, I call myself a feminist. Now days it’s difficult to say that without people judging you for being an ‘aggressive’ man hating femanazi. A term generated by someone who probably couldn’t bear women standing up for themselves. How sadistic is the need to make everything subjective where divided opinions are not about liberation but trivialising the need to bring about a change. Many of us prefer to leave things to changing times. We’ve all moved forward, haven’t we? But does that take away my need to a stand for things that matter?

They call me names, mostly because I stand up against bullies who take my pictures as an invitation for sex and more kinky actuality. I bear in mind that I am a woman- more importantly a woman who thinks for herself, ‘feminist types’ as they say. They think I speak too much for my gender, make issues out of nothing, that my standing up is a waste because I don’t believe in the kind of equality they advocate. The terms and conditions they lay out for some sort of internal settlement. They know better.

I grew up reading women’s literature and suddenly all the anonymous I had ever read came to life, ever wondered about their existence?

I am slut shammed at times, men send me dick pics with free offers because they think ‘I am easy and pretty.’

‘Thank you but I am not interested’ I say.

‘Fuck off, you filthy slut’ I get.

I wonder how ingrained is this word in our psyche, how easy is it for men and women to play with somebody’s morality. How easy is it to categorise without understanding the consequences it can have on someone’s mind? How easy is it to say things that are offending to someone’s character? What are we thinking?

They tell me I need to calm the fuck down, it’s not slang really, it’s filth filled in our brains, a voluntary reaction from things we have heard other people say. What else? Labelling is easier than looking down your own conscience.

They tell me I am the crazy feminist they tend to avoid. They tell me men suffer too but when did I ever say they don’t? When did I ever say, I am standing up against men alone. When did I ever say that feminism is about women and women alone? When did I ever say that all men are the same? When did I ever say all that you think I mean when I say I am a feminist.

As insignificant an issue as this may sound it is about equality, not men.