Third wave feminism is popular right now, and it seems that being a female is automatically associated with being feminist. I don't consider myself a feminist, though.
One of the biggest problems I have with feminism is who third wave feminists are associated with. The loudest people, even if they are a minority, are the ones screaming to kill all men, saying all men are horrible predators and argue archaic "facts" that aren't true anymore (like the wage gap). I don't think all men are horrible or that women are superior. I know a lot of feminists don't think that either, but I far more often hear from the ones that do, and I'd rather not be associated with people who do.
I also do a lot of research about something before deciding its validity, and a lot of what I hear from people who claim they are feminists are "facts" about the wage gap, sexism, and overall equality of women. While sexism exists, things like "mansplaining" (men talking over a woman to explain something a woman could explain), "manspreading" (a man spreading his legs to sit in a public place), and even the wage gap (which is much lower than people think, if existent at all) are such minuscule things that it diminishes the effect of the word "sexism" because it's being thrown around at everything. I don't think it's sexist for a man to spread his legs on a bus. I don't think it has to be sexist that a man interrupts a woman because women do it too. And it is illegal for a woman to be paid less than a man for the same work, and when it happens it's much closer to two 98 cents on the dollar than 77 cents. In fact, the differences that occur in it are because of choices women make, not men keeping them down. This is found on reputable sites like Forbes and CNN with a two-word Google search.
I also don't want to be part of the double standard that is associated with third wave feminism. If a man talks over a woman, it's sexist, but if a woman talks over a man it's powerful and encouraging. Some of the louder feminists say that women should always be believed when accusing somebody of rape, but men shouldn't be, or even can't be raped. Women can't be objectified in movies or video games, but when a male is sexualized for women nothing is wrong with that. It's concerning to me that people think it can work one way and not the other, and I don't want to be grouped with those people.
I'm not anti-feminist. If somebody chooses to be a feminist, that's their choice and I can respect it. I know a lot of feminists don't believe these things. The problem is, the loudest feminists have double standards, throw around the word "sexism" and "facts" about it without actually being able to back it up, and despise men. I appreciate the women that came before us and got me the right to vote, own property, and make my own decisions, but feminism now has been lost behind bigots who justify their bigotry through claiming feminism. I don't want to be considered one of those people simply because somebody hears I'm a feminist.
