What They Really Mean When They Say They’re Not a Feminist

March 30, 2015 by Ronnie Ritchie

What do you think when someone says “I’m not a feminist?” They might not mean what you think. If you identify as a feminist, check out some of the reasons people don’t.

And if you don’t call yourself a feminist, see if you find some of your reasons here. The stories in this comic can help us all have more respect for the wide range of ways we stand up to oppression.

With Love,
The Editors at Everyday Feminism

Click for the Transcript

Title: What They Mean When They Say They’re Not a Feminist

(Two columns, one labeled “what they say” and “what they mean”)

Panel 1

Black Woman: I’m more of a womanist than a feminist.

Panel 2

BW: I identify more with a movement of Black women asserting our right to be who we are in entirety than a movement with a history of putting Black women, literally, at the back of the marching line.

Panel 3

Trans Woman: I guess I agree with feminism, but I don’t really participate much.

Panel 4

TW: I have been routinely dismissed and harassed by feminists because I’m transgender. I don’t go to events anymore because I fear for my well-being.

Panel 5

Hijabi Woman: Feminism isn’t really for me.

Panel 6

HW: The feminism first introduced to me was second-wave, white feminism, and it denounced the cultural differences in my life. I don’t support that kind of non-intersectional feminism.

Panel 7

Nonbinary Person: I don’t know how I feel about feminism.

Panel 8

NP: I agree with feminist thought, but I have trouble finding feminists that acknowledge that my gender/lack of gender, much less my struggles with cissexism and even misogyny.

Panel 9

Aboriginal Woman: I don’t need feminism in my life.

Panel 10

AW: Feminists consider my Indigenous culture oppressive when most of the sexism in my life originates from colonialism. I want to find my freedom by embracing my cultural history, not by fitting western standards of gender liberation.

Panel 11

Trans Man: I don’t really call myself feminist anymore.

Panel 12

TM: In the spaces I’m in, the word “feminist” is reserved for people who experience misogyny. Now that I’m at the point in my transition where I don’t experience misogyny anymore, I’m stepping back and taking the role of the ally.

Panel 13

White (Cis, Straight, Thin, Non-Disabled) Woman: I don’t need feminism. Women aren’t oppressed anymore.

Panel 14

WW: I don’t realize how privileged I am that my race/nationality/sexuality/assigned sex/gender identity/size/ability minimizes the effects of the Patriarchy in my life to the point I don’t think it exists.

To learn more about this topic, check out:

Why Our Feminism Must Be Intersectional (And 3 Ways to Practice It)

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Ronnie Rene Ritchie is a Contributing Comic Artist for Everyday Feminism, an illustrator, and storyteller working out of Peterborough, Ontario. Since graduating from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon with a BFA in Illustration, Ronnie has had work featured in galleries and sex shops across North America, and their autobiographical webcomic, GQutie, has seen its popularity soar online. Learn more about GQutie, Ronnie’s illustration, or follow them on Twitter @ronithebear.