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Fiercely clinging to a tarnished name: Feminism

The term "feminism" has effectively become a synonym for "extremist political social marxism" because of so many loud and visible extremist feminist actions and opinions. These are the feminists that are actively shutting down academic freedom in the universities of many countries, effectively reversed the burden of proof in rape accusation cases at many places (ie. the accused will be considered guilty unless he can prove his innocence, which is rather hard to do in rape accusation cases; and no, this is not an exaggeration), who rather freely harass men who are completely innocent (even after they have been proven to be completely innocent), disrupt peaceful meetings, sometimes violently and sometimes even breaking the law, who express all kinds of misandrist opinions and actively advocate blatant discrimination against white men for the sole reason that they are white and men (such as forbidding them from applying to leading positions in certain organizations), and so on.

Yet many feminists (both extremists and more "moderate" ones) are fighting tooth and nail to restore the reputation of the tarnished term "feminism". They cling to the claim that "feminism" is an exact synonym for "equal rights", no more, no less (when everybody, including they themselves, know perfectly well that's not the only thing that "feminism" means). They campaign for the restoration of this reputation, they even get to speak in front of the UN on this very subject. The more moderate ones try to claim that those extremists do not represent real feminism.

Saying that "feminism" is just "equal rights for genders", and that if you support equal rights you are a feminist, is like saying that "communism" is just the notion that all workers should have equal rights, and that if you agree that all workers should have equal rights you are a communist.

And yet, even these more moderate feminists ofter resort to intellectually dishonest tactics when doing this. They often paint a picture of an anti-feminist as being an old-fashioned man with sexist attitudes and who simply has stereotypical misconceptions about feminism and doesn't understand it. Unless directly asked, they seldom acknowledge those things I wrote in the starting paragraph above, or that many critics of feminism very well know and understand what both the extremists and the moderates arguments are, and that they have come to their own conclusions based on full information rather than assumptions and stereotypes.

The term "feminism" has been tarnished by the antics of the extremists (and often even not-so-extremists). The term has a bad reputation, both among the general public and especially among the informed critics of feminism. So the question arises: Why are these feminists clinging so vehemently to using the term? Why are they spending so much effort in trying to restore its reputation? Why do they love that particular word so much that they can't just let it go? What exactly is it with that word in particular that's so valuable and dear that it can't be tossed aside? They defend that particular word almost religiously, as if it were sacred.

When I asked this question to a feminist recently, he answered that if using the term "feminist" causes hissy fits and tantrums, it's worth it even for that reason alone. And this isn't actually the first time I have heard this argument.

The hypocrisy is mind-boggling. They advocate using the term precisely because it causes so much opposition and criticism. Then they cry and moan because they get so much opposition and criticism.

Do you know what kind of people deliberately use controversial words to stir trouble? Trolls.

If your clinging to the term amounts to nothing more than troll tactics, then my response is: Thanks, but no thanks. You can keep your religion, I'll stay away from it.

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