If someone were to walk up to me and say, “Hello, I’m a feminist,” I wouldn’t take them seriously as a person. Because when I think of a feminist, I get the image of some woman standing on a street corner with a sign that says something like this:

I am to understand, that at its core, feminism promotes equality of all races, creeds, religions and genders. Isn’t that such a beautiful thought? Everyone is equal. Man, that just feels good to type. But why is that not what I imagine when I hear that word? It’s not that I’m uninformed, ignorant or even arrogant; it’s actually quite the opposite. It’s the fact that ever since I came to college, I’ve been exposed to a radical feminist agenda. I guess when you go to a liberal arts school it's just included in the package, right?

These are people, not necessarily women, who are usually toward the extreme end of their idealogical spectrum. They come off as arrogant, prideful, hypocritical and contradictory. They taint the image of what feminism should be. A comparison I like to make is that not every person who owns a Confederate flag T-shirt is a racist, but some are. But because the flag has such negative connotation, it bleeds into the people who just use it to represent their heritage. The radical feminists are the flag that bleeds into the feminist ideals.

These are the people who paint white men as racists and rapists who supposedly prolong an unsubstantiated wage gap. I am not racist nor a rapist, but I am a white dude. I understand that there is such thing as white privilege, but I try to not capitalize on that. I check my privilege when I need to — but that’s not what this is about.

What this is about is the degradation of feminist ideals. This is the corruption of the original ideas of equality, and these corruptions have now succeeded in replacing the original principles of feminism. And, honestly, there’s no going back. Feminism just leaves a bad taste in your mouth; it’s like a company that gave people food poisoning and needs to polish their reputation. I'll have more on that later.

For now, I’d like to jump on an idea that these radicals cling to for the validation that they so desperately seek: The wage gap. The supposed wage gap entails employed women making 78 cents compared to every dollar a man makes. Kerri Anne Renzulli of Time.com said that occupational segregation (women entering lower-paying fields than men), maternity leave and a focus on experience and overall skills were to blame for the pay gap — which, by the way, is actually closer to 93 cents per male dollar — meaning that the 22-cent difference may not be entirely based in gender bias.

Forbes also commented on the apparent wage gap:

“We have roughly 150 million people in our workforce, about half of them female. And there are pervasive claims out there that women are paid 23% less than men. You’d think we’d be able to find a few matched pairs to demonstrate this factoid.

As a matter of fact: If there were such ubiquitous gender wage disparities in violation of federal law, why are there not extensive investigations by the Department of Justice or the Office of Civil Rights? And why isn’t there a cottage industry of law firms specializing in representing women who are victims of the supposed pervasive gender discrimination, the way there are hundreds of law firms representing mesothelioma victims who were exposed to asbestos on the job?

Occam’s Razor should lead to the conclusion that there are no such investigations because there’s no examples to make. Perversely perhaps, maybe the false '77 cents on the dollar' narrative is actually perpetuated by the total lack of any evidence that any employers actually pay women 23% less than men for the same job. After all, it’s better to keep those mythical violations very vague, ambiguous, and undocumented as a way to keep the myth alive, like very rare sightings of Bigfoot.”

The article then asks, if the 22 cents is the average difference in pay, where are the women who could be making 50 or 60 percent less than men?

So now that I’ve whittled away at the strength of this wage gap argument, I’d like to go back to the topic of feminism and its need for a serious rebranding. Now, what I’m about to suggest is groundbreaking…

Everyone should just be decent to each other.

Bros, be good to the people around you. Ladies, be good to the people around you. And as long as no one flies off the handle, I think we’ll do just fine.

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/11/27/if-there-really-is-a-gender-pay-gap-then-where-the-heck-is-it/#59379ab77c24

http://time.com/money/4009768/wage-gap-men-women-equal-pay/