Yeah, but I’m not one of those crazy feminists

Okay, I want to ask you what people think of feminism and feminists in general. I just got off the phone with an old friend of mine and I was surprised of this young woman’s reaction.

We were talking about life in general and she tells me about this project on feminist after the WWII. She seems to be interested in the subject and soon I ask her, since I have not talked to her for long, do you consider yourself a feminist?

Haha, she laughed. No I don’t. I believe in equal rights and equality but I’m not one of these crazy feminists. It was my time to laugh. But to my surprise I found myself sayng I wasn’t a crazy feminist either. I was a feminist, but I was not crazy. 

Apparently it has to be stated that you do not wish to send all men off to mars and archive absolute woman power in society if you are to call yourself a feminist. And this was not a unique happening, it happens more or less every day and I am faced with the question of what my opinion of this and that, to assure them that I am not crazy, or worse going crazy.

Please note that these are not my words, the feminism they are "accusing" me for belonging to is nothing one should be accused for belonging to and I find it weird in more ways than these.

Point is, I have to defend feminism, and all types of feminism, liberal, radical, queer etc. etc. daily because people in my surroundings need to be assured of what I stand for.

I do not get it. Why was it so given that my old friend would not consider herself a feminist and why do my surroundings force me to explain my ideals constantly? What is so provocative about feminism today that it causes this much disturbance?

I’m curious. What has been said and done to create a movement that everyone is part of but that everyone despises?