Believing that feminism is one solid conglomerate of ideology is one of the biggest misconceptions you can have about the movement itself. There are branches with their own platforms, filling in the blanks they see as insufficient to the cause. We see this happen with all kinds of social movements throughout history, and contrary to what the documentaries and the museums may project, one social movement is hardly ever united perfectly.

For the most part, I have been able to relate to all of them, and the people that fight for them, on some level. But there are some trends that I will never align myself with. After a good amount of time trying to place my finger on what it is that rubs me the wrong way, I've finally become able to put it into words.

Binary feminism.

We all grew up with it as a part of our socialization: equality between the sexes, a woman should be equal to a man. It makes sense to this day, because the binary of the sexes still exemplifies inequality. I agree that this structure has proven to be the asset of a man's world, where the cisman (more specifically, the cisgender heterosexual white man) advances with the utmost mobility while all those who deviate from that mold must face extra obstacles.

I, as a cisgender, queer, white woman, have little difficulty with falling in line with all of this. It is when I look at the struggles of my peers, family members, and friends, who have more strikes against them than I ever will have to endure: being trans or genderqueer, the color of their skin, their health disabilities both mental and physical (latent and manifest), and the classes they were born into, and so on, that I grow an ill-feeling pit in my stomach.

I watch feminist movements that cry out for the cause of true womanhood and the oppression that comes with it, and the victimization that is not without its evidence, and I wonder: where does my fight as a feminist woman end? Where is it no longer my duty, my obligation to speak?

I have been born into the weaker of the two preconceived sexes. However, the concept of those two polarizing identities have been socially constructed as to create advantaged and disadvantaged people. Any "true womanhood" I have is only mine because I've been socialized to have it-- it is not concrete to me, it is not something material that I possess outright. Everything I know about myself right down to my gender was constructed for me the way I was born and sexed without my consent. From then on, I was given colors, clothes, makeup, hobbies, inclinations, and mannerisms to play out. Whether or not I conformed to them would define me as a person in society.

It is my responsibility as a feminist to reclaim these attachments and interests for myself and for everyone around me who had these liberties to self-determine stripped from them without their knowledge. Members of my sex have been abused, oppressed, exploited, manipulated, and stuck with the shorter straw. But that is not the whole story to modern society's proportions of power. There is more than the binary, there is more than the two ends of the spectrum.

If I were to ever take a stance as the utmost oppressed, and fight for my interests as well as those who also agree with that statement personally, I'm exempting myself from the whole point of a feminist movement. I'm growing militant for select reasons, the concept of "true oppression," whose validity rests on the invalidation of others' experiences. That is not true justice. Oppression is oppression, and does not need to seek relativity in all of its forms, in order to be legitimate.

Feminism needs to go beyond the binary. It needs to succeed for all those who suffer under the white, cisgender, heterosexual patriarchy. I'm not succumbing to my assumed monolithic, internalized weakness in what I fight for. The whole reason I am here and I am experiencing this injustice is because I was judged based on my gender and sex, and for me to do the same to someone else in order to solidify my prioritization above them in what is supposed to be a movement against gender and sex inequality, makes no sense.