Saw your impressive explanation of the word "feminism" and besides praising you for that, I was wondering: what's your take on those who call themselves feminists but act like misandrists? How should they be treated? Thank you for opening my eyes.
I think they should be politely informed that what they’re saying/doing isn’t feminism because often people have simply been misinformed and don’t realize that what they’re doing is a problem. For example, society has been saying for decades that recycling is a good thing and everyone should do it. What if someone was taught that if they put something on the ground beside a garbage can the garbage collectors will recycle it? They’re wrong, they’re actually littering which is a problem, but they think they’re doing a good thing by leaving that empty paper cup on the ground beside a garbage can. Never assume that they’re intentionally being a jerk, more often than not they have been misinformed and are misguidedly trying to do the right thing. You could be the nice person to give them the correct information.
If they respond by saying you’re wrong and their original statements are right then it’s usually not a case of misinformation, they are purposefully misusing the banner of feminism to spread misinformation, although on occasion it’s a case of them being so misinformed that it will take a little more detail to get them to understand that. On the internet, there’s also the problem of anti-feminists trying to start fights with real feminists to make us look bad, anonymity means that anyone can claim to be anything. Reassert what real femenism is, and why what they’re saying isn’t feminism. Respond calmly and politely, ignore any personal attacks or attempts to drag you off topic. Eventually they’ll make it obvious that all they really care about is bating you into a fight, which destroys all credibility they had on the subject. By then you’ve already said everything important because you stayed on point in your other responses, and people can now see that the other person is purely antagonistic. State that you’ve made your point and this will be your last response because it’s obvious they’re only interested in baiting you into a pointless fight. Then ignore any replies they make. People can see what was said and judge for themselves who was right and who was wrong. As long as you can stand behind and be proud of what you said then you’ve done your job at representing real feminism.
