Tinder Tales from a Feminist

I did it. I downloaded Tinder and I asked every guy in a twenty-mile radius if he considered himself a feminist.

It’s almost like I enjoy hitting myself on the head with a hammer.

But here it is; a little taste of what Tinder has to offer the feminist movement…

It started out a little “fuzzy”, but nothing bad enough to make me want to poke out my eyes:

Then Daniel warmed my heart (but is a bit of a suck up):

Sometimes we were confused, but confident enough to ask for a little help:

Then we really got lost in translation:

But thank god for Nathan’s mom:

Then I encountered some cheeky hesitation:

Followed by some good ol’ ignorance and disrespect:

Then Josh, who was just not on board for the question:

But thank goodness I found Bradley, sharing his enthusiasm for feminism:

Unfortunately we had to get “all mighty”:

And then I considered abandoning all hope for humanity:

But I rallied, because this dreamboat came into my life:

I will say, I did receive many “Yes I do” answers. Simple and to the point. Were the eligible bachelors of Tinder just lying to me? Do these gentlemen even know what feminism really is? Who knows.

But here are my two takeaways from my surprising, hilarious and disheartening social experiment.

First, this conversation is still not prevalent in society. As someone who is always discussing issues with friends, following Twitter hash tags, reading articles, etc., feminism seems to be everywhere. But, in fact, it’s not. Many of the men, perhaps the majority, needed clarification of what a feminist is (props to them for asking). A number of guys also asked me why in the first place I was even asking this question. It was received by most of these men as odd to discuss feminism.

Second, it’s evident there is still big disconnect between how people perceive the feminist label in comparison to the notion of equality for all. As I said in my post about The F Word many months ago, there’s a growing popularity of this ‘no, but…’ type of feminism whereby men and women embrace feminist principles yet reject the feminist label. This rejection creates a harmful paradox between general support for feminist philosophies (aka equality for all) and a lack of identification with or a complete rejection of the movement.

So, interesting fellows of Tinder, (and all those other men outside of my twenty-mile radius) it is time for you to read up and speak up. Feminism is relevant, the issues are prevalent, and your support is imperative.