Let’s keep the “fem” in feminism, shall we?

A few days ago, I stumbled upon the “Buzzfeed Feminism Survey 2014” and decided to check it out. The survey is surprisingly extensive and everything was going well until I was asked, “Do you agree with the terms ‘feminism” and “feminist’ or do you think the gender equality movement needs a different name?” Immediately I chose the answer “feminism/feminist are the correct terms,” and was utterly heartbroken that I was in the minority. The results when I took the survey were 44% for the feminist movement, 55% believing that “The gender equality movement should use a different name.”

How could this be?! I’ve made sense of my life through feminism; I proudly identify as a feminist any chance I get, hoping to inspire others in their own feminist awakenings. Now here I am, witnessing a great backlash within my own community that “feminism” is outdated and should be replaced. What are the BuzzFeed feminists saying?!

But thinking back to some of the negative interactions I’ve had with people (particularly men) about feminism, much of the criticism is about the term itself. People assure me that they believe in “female equality” and “gender equality,” but do not identify as feminists or support the feminist movement because the name is focused on women. “Why not call it genderism?!” they ask. It was easy to shake off this criticism from unsupportive students at my college campus, but the 112.5k BuzzFeed votes against the word “feminism” cut to the core.

To the 112.5k that voted to take the “fem” out of feminism, I’d like to ask a few questions:

1) Are you equally, if not more upset at words like “freshmen,” “mankind,” and “guys” that are applied to people of all genders, even though they are grammatically male?

2) Or are you just against the word “feminism” because is not a gender neutral term, and on the surface does not explicitly include men and masculinity?

Newsflash, folks: Feminism is supposed to make people uncomfortable at times and is supposed to be mainly focused with liberating women and people of all genders other than cis men; how else do you deconstruct patriarchal, institutional oppression? The “fem” in feminism is crucial! It is there to highlight women, because the feminist movement was first and foremost about on ridding the world of patriarchy, a type of oppression that privileges cis men and oppresses women and anything associated with femininity. As the feminist movement has moved towards intersectionality and away from enforcing the gender binary, one might argue that we should rename the movement because it isn’t all-inclusive. But let’s take a closer look at the power of patriarchy.

We feminists know patriarchy hails men and brings down women, but have you ever thought about how far the oppression really extends in society? Friends, if you answered yes to #2, then you’re probably against the “fem” because of your own internalized misogyny. The discomfort and negativity towards the term a product of internalized misogyny viewing movement that does not explicitly include cis men (read: is meant for women and people of all genders other than cis men) as bad. Your internalized misogyny is against the “fem” because our patriarchal society is against anything not socialized as “male.”

Feminism should never and will never be a comfort zone for cis men because it does not exist directly for them. No, this does not mean that they cannot be feminists and do not benefit from feminism, because everyone benefits from feminism and anyone can become a feminist. It just means that if we shift away from feminism to the “gender equality movement,” we are losing a large part of our feminist lens. As an intersectional, trans-inclusive feminist, the “fem” in feminism is important because it highlights how anything other than the normalized standard of the cis, white man is oppressed.