Why You Don't Need Feminism

Recently, I made a post about Mark Ruffalo's ridiculous and accusatory response to everyone who disagrees with him about feminism. Or, more specifically, the "I don't need feminism" internet phenomenon that was actually a response to the "I need feminism" internet phenomenon, but he had nothing to say about that one.

However, while writing that post, I decided I would look at some of these pictures of the "I need feminism" posts and see why they were so good, but they're not. They are beyond ridiculous and the fact that Mark Ruffalo thinks I'm an idiot because the modern feminism movement is absurd makes him an idiot.

So, to show you why these posts are ridiculous, I will show you some of these I need feminism signs and explain why it's stupid.

And the definition of feminism, for the purposes of this post, remains the same as the last thing it was last time I wrote on this subject.

Feminism: the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.

Okay, so, without further ado, here I go.

I need feminism because I don't want my gender to make choices for me

The response to this is simple: it doesn't. Gender does not have a mind nor a conscious. It is incapable of thinking or making decisions. It's impossible for your gender to make your choices for you. The only one who makes your decisions is you. If you let your gender influence your decisions, that's YOUR problem and feminism won't help you with that. 

I need feminism because I considered not getting this photo taken because I'm not wearing make up.

I fail to see what feminism could do about that. Your low self esteem is not something feminism can fix. That's your issue that only you can do something about. Don't sit around and wait for feminism to march down the street with signs screaming their opinions about make up. Or maybe you want feminism to come put your make up on for you? Or talk you into not wearing make up? I'm so confused. Why is something that only affects you (your low self esteem and only feeling comfortable having pictures taken if you're wearing make up) a social issue? I don't care if you wear make up or not and neither does anyone else. Seriously. You are the only one. 

I need feminism because if you honk....I might fall off my bike!

Oh, honey. If you have such poor balance that a car horn would cause you to fall off your bike, then you really shouldn't be riding bikes. At least not around places where people drive cars. That's dangerous. Feminism can't give you better balance so you don't need feminism, you need practice. If you're around cars, chances are you're going to hear horns being honked a few times. Some people honk at other drivers for making traffic errors and we wouldn't want you to fall off your bike. So either don't ride around cars or learn to ride better. This really has nothing to do with feminism.

I need feminism because I'm tired of being called hysterical & over-sensitive

Well, if you are a hysterical and over-sensitive person, chances are you're going to be called that throughout your life. Those are something we call personality traits and feminism can't change your personality. What do you expect feminism to do about that? If you don't want to be called hysterical and over-sensitive maybe you should toughen up and learn to control yourself better. See what a difference that makes before deciding this is something society needs to fix for you.

I need feminism because at 7 years old, my little cousin wants to know why there is so much violence against women - and I have no answer for her.

Tell her this: the number of men and women in the world is about equal, which means women are approximately 50% of the world's population. With over 7 billion people on the planet, that means there are millions of women. Now, consider how many acts of violence are committed a year. Don't think about them in terms of violence against men or violence against women. Think of it as violence against people in general. Now, out of all those acts of violence, statistically speaking, women will be the victim at least half the time. The rest of the violence would be violence against men. But feminists of course don't care about that. Explain to her that people are flawed and when an act of violence is committed, sometimes the victim is female and sometime the victim is male. Sometime the perpetrator is male and sometimes the perpetrator is female. There is so much violence against women because people commit violent acts against each other and women are people. I don't condone violence, but I don't think violence against women is a separate issue than violence against people in general. But I don't know why you need feminism because you don't know the answer to a question. Just look it up or send your cousin to someone smarter than you.

I need feminism because too much of history was written by white, bourgeois, heterosexual, cisgender men...like me....!

Clearly, you don't know this already, but feminism cannot change what happened in history or who took the initiative to write it down or make it happen. Feminism says they are all about equality but for some reason it's not cool to be heterosexual, cisgender, or a male because that's too...demeaning to women? Look, no one stopped women from participating in history but if a man did something important to history, I don't want to be lied to. I don't care what the gender of the historical figure is, I care what they did. Anti-feminists didn't stop women from doing anything and neither did men. There are hundreds of great women in history. Rosa Parks, Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, Anne Frank, Pocahontas, Sacagawea, Abigail Adams, Queen Victoria, Cleopatra, Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton, Elisabeth Elliot, Marie Curie, Helen Keller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Mother Teresa, Harriet Tubman and Marie Antoinette to name a few. Don't say you need feminism because you're uneducated.

I need feminism because my vagina has a voice.

Gross. No it doesn't.

I need feminism because never having experienced street harassment shouldn't make feel unattractive. 

You're right, it shouldn't. But, once again, this is not a social issue, this is a personal issue. The problem is not that feminism isn't accepted by everyone; the problem is you have low self esteem and feminism won't change that! You have to change that. I mean, if that's why you need feminism, I think you will be very disappointed in feminism because it can't do a thing for your self esteem. And if that's your reason then I guess it's just as acceptable for me to say I don't need feminism because never having experienced street harassment doesn't make me feel unattractive at all. See how it's a personal thing and not a social issue?

I need feminism because my university is named after a man.

Wow.....you need feminism because you chose to attend a school named after a man? What exactly do you expect feminism to do here? Change the name of the school? Pick out a different one for you? My suggestion is if you are unhappy with the name of your school either go to a different one or get over it. There are plenty of schools named after women if you prefer to go to one of those.

I need feminism because my period does not invalidate my opinion!

Well, let's think about that. If you are one of the many women whose period dramatically effects your mood and makes you sensitive and emotional and influences decisions you make, then I would say in some instances it does invalidate your opinion. If you are on your period, you are less likely to be rational and you have to take that into consideration. Feminism can't help you here. Your menstruation cycle won't change no matter what feminism says. It's not because you're a woman or have a period, it's because during the cycle, women can become moody and irrational.

I need feminism because some of my friends will laugh at me for doing this.

That's because this is silly and ridiculous. You are expecting feminism to fundamentally change human behavior and nature which it can't and won't do. You're wasting time with something stupid and it's laughable. Anyone who does this deserves to be laughed at. And feminism won't stop your friends from laughing at you. Feminism doesn't do anything. At all.


There are more of these out there and I haven't seen one that isn't ridiculous. In fact, some of them are so dumb don't be surprised if I make a part 2 to this post. Anyway, if you look, none of these cutsey signs (see what I did there?) have anything do to with the definition of feminism. They all just want feminism to make themselves feel better about being weak and stupid. But all these things are exactly why we don't need feminism! Feminism is what is fooling these people into thinking any of these things are actual problems. Feminism is what is telling people they are oppressed but it's just not true. If people would use their brains this wouldn't be happening.

Modern feminism is a joke and these people are the punch line.