By Kristal Ramos Quevedo

Have you ever wondered why some women say they are not feminists, yet still want to vote and have their own bank accounts? It might seem silly to some that these women want the benefits of earlier feminist movements but openly oppose feminism. However, the answer is actually quite simple—if you take the time to look at things from their perspective instead of making assumptions. Curiosity, rather than judgment, is always better.

First, I want to define feminism. There are several types of feminism, but to generalize, I will refer to the movement as a whole. The central goal of feminism is to ensure that men and women have equal opportunities in life. Since this movement focuses on improving women's lives, it's important to define what—or who—a woman is.

A woman who identifies as a feminist may not be able to easily answer that question, and that’s something they are known for: each tends to have their own definition. In contrast, a woman who does not identify as a feminist might say something like, “An adult female with XX chromosomes.” That definition can be controversial, but it's arguably the most consistent one. Historically, the people who were denied the right to vote, open a bank account, or attend school were specifically those who fit that biological definition of an adult female with XX chromosomes.

Those issues did not apply to anyone who merely identified as a woman. For example, someone with XY chromosomes who identified as a woman would not have been denied the right to vote or go to school—they may have faced discrimination for being transgender, but not the same systemic barriers faced by biological women.

And that’s one reason why some women choose not to identify as feminists: because the movement struggles to define what a woman is—or offers inconsistent definitions. If a movement is fighting for women’s rights but can’t clearly define who women are, it raises the question of whose rights are being championed. It starts to resemble a human rights movement more broadly, rather than one focused specifically on women, which contradicts the core purpose of feminism.

Now that I have clarified the target population for feminism, I would like to talk about what these women view feminism as. Like most people, when we speak we like to focus on the present. This means that when women say they are not feminist, they are referring to the present which is fourth wave feminism, they are not referring to the other waves that fought for our rights. 

Women currently have the same rights that men have. However, feminists don’t believe they do. Feminist believe in the wage gap, which is not real. And if it is, it is not due to discrimination but instead work patterns. Women don’t get paid less than men for doing the same job because they are women. What happens is that women typically do not have the same work patterns that men have. Women don’t strive to be in higher positions or get pay raises as much as men do because it is more common for men to do that since they are typically the sole breadwinner of the family. Women also take parental leave at higher rates than men do. So it doesn’t make sense for feminist to be fighting against the wage gap. Them fighting against the wage gap is basically telling women to have the same work patterns as men and choose the exact same positions, which is nearly impossible. 

The feminist fighting for this are also notorious to be picky in the positions they want women to be. They want more women in power, more women CEOs and more women in certain fields. Typically fields related to STEM or any profession that is highly looked up to. They want the same amount of men and women engineers but they never mention the same amount of men and women in construction or plumbing which are both extremely important jobs. That seems very hypocritical to those women who don’t claim to be feminists. It is also impossible to have an equal number of men and women in every profession because men and women are typically naturally interested in different things and there’s nothing wrong with that. No one is stopping women from choosing the career they want. 

Another important reason is that feminists are extremely supportive of any type of sex work. They think sex work is empowering and they often encourage women to take part on the industry or praise them for being part of it. But they don’t realize how damaging sex work is for both women and men. The sex work industry is exploitative and highly dangerous. Also,the reason why women join are never because they always wanted to be a pornstar as a kid, but instead because of some unresolved trauma. On top of that, the sex work industry contributes to the objectification of women by men. Men who are porn addicts are the ones hurting and harassing women because their brains have been rooted by pornography which is something that feminists highly support. If feminists support sex work, they support watching pornography. And pornography is extremely damaging to both men and women, yet feminists think it’s empowering. 

These are the values that modern day feminists stand by. They are extremely loud about it and they can be very violent with their protests. They also love public nudity as a form of protesting. I completely acknowledge that there are many issues that women face nowadays but modern feminism isn’t doing much to fix it. Modern day feminism can even destroy marriages. And that is why some women say they are not feminists. The impression that modern day feminists have left is so bad that it has caused women to be against it. Of course these women are grateful to have their rights and they believe in previous waves of feminism, just not this one. 

This Op-ed reflects the views and opinions of the writer, not Westwood Review as a whole.