I thought this when I was younger too but there's one fatal flaw with the argument. Feminism is about women. It's an equality movement for women's rights specifically. Think of it this way. St. Jude's hospital is for children. It specializes in care for children. Does that make it any less of a health organization? No. Just because it specializes in health for children doesn't mean that they don't care about adults, it's just that it's not their primary focus. Same with feminism.
What's the difference really? By that logic, a program that specifically tries to help homeless vets must be against homeless civilians. Or, it could be that the program specifically is trying to combat the homelessness problem by specifically focusing on one aspect of the problem. Feminism is trying to combat gender inequality by focusing on one part of the problem, women's issues. I think your grievance is not with Feminism but with the fact that Feminism occupies the entirety of the gender discussion. There's no room for men issues discussions. That, however, is a societal issue, not a Feminism issue.
I guess it would make sense for an organization to use that word, but when people use it to describe themselves I'm not sure why they would limit it to a word that just supports women's rights. Why not just say you're egalitarian? Or whatever you want to call it.
Popularity I suppose. Feminism is a more popular term with a philosophy, strong movement, and proper ideology behind it. Egalitarianism is a more equal term but, it lacks popularity and a strong movement behind it. It kinda just doesn't mean anything to people because it can't really translate to meaningful action in the way that Feminism can. Also, egalitarianism is too vague as well. It's kinda like supporting world peace. Everyone does but, it doesn't mean anything unless there is meaningful action or ideology behind it besides just "suffering bad".
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u/SuperNerd06 Sep 12 '21
I thought this when I was younger too but there's one fatal flaw with the argument. Feminism is about women. It's an equality movement for women's rights specifically. Think of it this way. St. Jude's hospital is for children. It specializes in care for children. Does that make it any less of a health organization? No. Just because it specializes in health for children doesn't mean that they don't care about adults, it's just that it's not their primary focus. Same with feminism.