Answer:

1. Despite the best of attempts to return it to course, feminism as a movement is still so depoliticised, vitiated, and corrupted from its original goals that the more I see and hear from self-identified feminists the less I feel that feminism is worth being salvaged. I’m so tired of people getting to claim the title feminist regardless of what their beliefs and politics are, to the extent that misogynists are speaking for feminism by simply rebranding women’s oppression as “empowering” or “liberating.” I’m so tired of feminists making space for men in feminism in the name of “inclusiveness” and letting them step up as authorities on what being a woman is, what patriarchy is, what misogyny is, and what feminists should be doing. I’m so tired of identity politics, consumerism, hyper-femininity, hyper-sexualisation, everything.

If saying that I’m a feminist doesn’t relay that I’m anti-gender, anti-capitalism, anti-porn, anti-pimping, anti-bdsm, and anti-compulsory heterosexuality, I don’t see the point. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the case were simply that people who don’t know anything about feminism could be properly informed (that is, even if they disagreed with the aims of feminism, there wouldn’t be disagreement on what feminism is) but it’s so much worse than that. There are so many very vocal, very obnoxious self-identified “feminists” shouting down feminists who actually oppose women’s oppression, flinging about baseless accusations and employing scare tactics to silence women they disagree with. And that is how we have literal pimps, rapists, abusers, and their supporters calling themselves feminists getting platforms to speak about how women against sexual exploitation are the real enemies and are taking away women’s agency. It’s an Orwellian nightmare.

2. Even branches of feminism whose ideology I generally agree with (i.e. radical feminism) are not immune to being watered down and claimed by people who don’t hold values that align with full-scale female liberation (i.e. I’ve seen white radical feminists say that racism isn’t a feminist issue because “racism doesn’t affect women,” I’ve seen straight radical feminists scold lesbians for “objectifying” women for expressing sexual attraction toward women and dismiss lesbians’ concerns about lesbiphobia.) It’s really disillusioning to see women, even radical women, try to turn feminism into a tool to improve their personal relationships with men and cure their men of misogyny. I’m sure many of these feminists have good intentions, but I wish there were more compassion and understanding when certain issues are brought up; it’s really not fair to accuse other women of misogyny for pointing out your hateful or privilege-defending behaviours, and I’ve seen that happen a lot.

If all this sounds like I’m giving up, I’m not, I can’t really afford to do that; it’s mostly just the label I don’t care about anymore. I care, and I will always care, about marginalised women and survivors and fighting oppressive systems and industries (capitalism, the sex industry, etc.).