Movements have to adapt to the societies they’re in. The term feminism made sense 100 years ago because women barely had rights. However, it makes way less today because there’s way more equality going on. Sure, you can point to something like Afghanistan today where the sense would make sense, and you would be right. However, the same is less true in a place like Sweden or America where gendered issues are less one sided than they used to be and the issues are more nuanced. You can’t use outdated standards and expect not to receive criticism for it. Optics do matter, and if they don’t accurately reflect the landscape then they’ll end up doing more harm than good.
Movements have to adapt to the societies they’re in. The term feminism made sense 100 years ago because women barely had rights. However, it makes way less today because there’s way more equality going on. Sure, you can point to something like Afghanistan today where the sense would make sense, and you would be right. However, the same is less true in a place like Sweden or America where gendered issues are less one sided than they used to be and the issues are more nuanced. You can’t use outdated standards and expect not to receive criticism for it. Optics do matter, and if they don’t accurately reflect the landscape then they’ll end up doing more harm than good.