An Alternate and Equally Valid View

As a counterpoint to my previous post, I thought I'd share a part of this post by s.e smith of this ain't livin', who writes about leaving the Feminist movement behind. I fully support this decision and feel it is important to share these words with you, as there is an undeniable and urgent need for systemic change from within. As proud as I am to be a Feminist, we must always remember that Feminism has a history of transphobia, classism, racism, ableism, and homophobia, and I will always understand why someone would choose to distance themselves from a movement that has historically excluded them.

"So many disabled people, nonwhite people, transgender people, people of colour, poor people, adamantly refuse to identify with feminism in its current incarnation in the United States. ‘Feminists’ talk about this in the sense that we’re all really feminist in how we think, behave, and act, we just have some irrational resistance to the label. No, we’re not really feminist. The model of feminism we see is one where oppression perpetrated in the name of ‘activism’ is acceptable, where casual ableism, racism, classism, transphobia run so deep that many of us don’t even bother to point it out anymore. The model of feminism we see is one where a handful of people profit at the expense of others. And that’s not how we think, behave, and act. That is not what we believe."

I strongly encourage you to read the full post.