Feminism is NOT about the liberation of women, and has never been

Recently the celebrity Jennifer Lopez got married, and took her husband's last name. Unsurprisingly the feminists and the leftists (there's a huge overlap between these two groups, but they are not always exactly identical) took issue on this, and started bitching and moaning about it. And not just some random nobodies on social media, but major newspapers like The New York Times. They lament the fact that she's "undermining feminism" by engaging in this old tradition of "the patriarchy".

This just goes to show how feminism is not about liberating women, about allowing women to make their own life decisions as they wish. Women must not be free to do what they want, they have to be activists for the cause and must never do things that go against The Message.

The fact is that feminism has never been about the liberation of women. Ok, perhaps so-called "first-wave feminism" (in the end of the 1800's and beginning of the 1900's) was partially like that, but at least from the so-called "second-wave feminism" forward it has never been.

Feminism is not about what women should be able to do. It's about what they must do. Feminism restricts the choices of women rather than expand and liberate them. Women must not make decisions nor do things that go against whatever the current feminist sociopolitical agenda happens to be. If they go against the agenda, their decision will not be respected and they will be admonished for it.

Heaven forbid a woman would want to be a traditional housewife, who stays at home raising her children while the husband goes to work to support the family. This would be absolute heresy! Such a woman is a traitor to the cause! Even doing so much as taking the husband's surname is treason!

In my opinion women, just like men, should be free to make their own life decisions (as long as they don't hurt nor restrict the freedoms of others). If a woman wants to work 60-hour weeks and become the CEO of a soulless corporation, so be it. If a woman wants to be an ultra-traditional housewife, so be it. If a woman wants to become a homeless bohemian artist, so be it. It's her choice, not anybody else's.

If a political movement comes and tells such a woman "no, you must not do that, you have to do this instead, because it advances our movement", then that movement is not about liberating women and respecting their life decisions. Liberty means that the person is free to do what she wants.