Intersectional, inclusive feminist community. Feminism is what we make it, so let's make it what we want it to be.
Welcome to the Feminists community. All are welcome.
Hello!
Feminism has a history. Part of that history includes racism, transphobia, homophopia, and overall ignorance from feminists. I believe that we can control what "feminism" means, and that we fully move to a fourth wave, to mandate that feminism includes all female indentifying (thanks, @amici) women, allies, nonbinary, genderfluid, LGBTQIA, and so on.
In this community, we welcome open discourse. However, we do not allow misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, or racism. Allies are welcome, but please respect that this is a space for feminist users to discuss issues, concerns, and more, first and foremost.
Edit: edited to change some of the language in this post.
I created the community and included descriptions for it pretty quickly. I'm looking for a team of people to help run the community, and as a team we'll rewrite the group rules, descriptions, etc... If you're interested in joining that team, message me!



I'm curious about your stance on nonbinary people. Do you specifically mean "women are our priority" or do you actually mean "non-men"? (This is a common nonbinary issue!)
Thanks. :)
I mean that issues that affect anyone identifying as female are the focus, and that allies of all gender/binary identities are welcome to be here. The focus is on the experience of all female identifying people, including non-binary/fluid. I hope that helps to clarify my post? Feel free to ask more questions if it doesn't.
It does. I'm an AFAB nonbinary agender person and while I am heavily affected by issues that affect women (like trans issues, reproductive rights for folks with uteruses, sexism and cissexism, etc.) I am officially not the priority here and feel kind of unwelcome, so I'll leave. Thank you for clarifying.
Thank you mod; I'm really tired of people who think "not the priority" = "unwelcome".
You are welcome here, and your perspectives are valued.
I didn't mean to make you feel unwelcome. I'm not an AFAB nonbinary agender person, so I admit that there's some learning to be done and I should educate myself about that. I mean to say that if you at any point relate to or identify as female, than this is a community for you. If you in no way relate to or identify as female, then you're welcome as an ally, with the understanding that the focus is on issues and discussion from the perspective of identifying as female, whatever that means for community members. Allies are always welcome here.
edit My wording here is sloppy and should be changed, but I don't want to edit it out of the original comment because there's some good discourse going on and if I edit it out, the following comments might not make sense. I'll say here that what I meant to write, and what I should have wrote, is that this community is for feminists. The leadership team (looking for more great folks!) is working together to form the community description and rules, and that also includes inclusive, clear language.
So to clarify: when you say your perspective is welcome "if you relate to [being female]", do you mean that nonbinary people and trans men who are affected by misogynistic systems (e.g. where reproductive rights are concerned) are welcome to talk about those issues here?
I do appreciate that, but I still don't feel welcome.
Because I am read as a woman, I directly experience negative effects of patriarchy as women do, plus a bunch of crap from not actually identifying as one, so I feel like a feminism group that includes me appropriately should at least be a non-men feminism rather than a women feminism.
It seems like you're hinting that because I am affected by things like reproductive rights that means I should "relate to female", and so I feel unsafe here because it means that the leader of this new community doesn't have the language and understanding of nonbinary issues relating to feminism that I need to feel safe and included here. I do not at any point relate to or identify as female, but I am treated like one and experience the negative effects of patriarchy directly, and that's why I think feminism should be for me too. But it seems from what you're saying like either:
So either way I lose and feel misunderstood and therefore unwelcome. Telling me I am welcome doesn't change things much!
Also being told that I could relate to female because of primary and secondary sexual characteristics that I couldn't stop myself from being born with feels really, really terrible - dysphoria.
Maybe "relate to female" is your shorthand for "experience the negative effects of patriarchy alongside women"? And I feel like everyone does, including men, which I think maybe is not the kind of feminism you would welcome here!
You make good points and I think my writing may have been sloppy. I apologize. I'm putting together a team of people to help run the community and we'll work together on the wording of things to make sure it's welcoming for all. If you'd like to help with the community, let me know.
"Because I am read as a woman, I directly experience negative effects of patriarchy as women do, plus a bunch of crap from not actually identifying as one, so I feel like a feminism group that includes me appropriately should at least be a non-men feminism rather than a women feminism." - this is a good point. Can you explain more about what you mean by "non-men feminism rather than a women feminism"? Do you mean, non-men feminism is more inclusive for all groups that aren't cis men? I'd like to understand this point better.
"It seems like you're hinting that because I am affected by things like reproductive rights that means I should "relate to female", and so I feel unsafe here because it means that the leader of this new community doesn't have the language and understanding of nonbinary issues relating to feminism that I need to feel safe and included here" - you're right. That wasn't the proper language to use. "Relate to female" is poor wording. Thank you for pointing that out. I'm sorry that it made you feel unsafe.
" * because of my genitals and reproductive organs you consider me "woman enough" to be affected by patriarchy when I am not even slightly a woman (leading to dysphoria), or
"Maybe "relate to female" is your shorthand for "experience the negative effects of patriarchy alongside women"? And I feel like everyone does, including men..." yes.
Thank you for taking the time to write all of this out. I hope that I explained better here. I'm going to pull some of the stuff out of the descriptions and leave it up to a team to help define what the rules are and how they should be worded.
Hi, thanks for the thoughtful reply. :)
This is not something I've tried to explain before but I'll give it a go! You know how there are women-only spaces in the world, like... DV crisis centres, I guess. Or gendered toilets, even. Those spaces are meant to make people safe from men. And here's me, not a man so no apparent threat, but I'm not a woman so to step into a woman's space would be to violate a boundary. Some spaces are getting wise to there being more than two genders, so they're saying "women and nonbinary people" or something, and the spirit of that is they're welcoming anyone who's not a man. It's more inclusive just because it includes people who aren't men, which is a larger group than just women. Does that help? Feel free to ask more questions!
Thanks for saying so. I look forward to finding out what kind of wording ends up being used.
It's hard to know how to approach this stuff, because, well, most feminist groups want to be focused on women. But when there are more than two genders you have to be inclusive, and the gender stuff outside of the binary is very difficult to inclusively define, so you have to just say "anyone affected negatively by patriarchy" and then you get to... well, patriarchy negatively affects us all, including men. So that opens the feminism group up to men too, which isn't what everyone is into - it means you have to be prepared to manage and lead a feminist group containing men, and that is a very different kettle of fish. It could potentially mean a lot more internal work and maybe less external activism world-changing work, maybe? I'm not sure, maybe that's not how it works and a good community can manage both.
So yeah, my feminism includes taking care of men who suffer from patriarchy. Men who are pressured to behave a certain way to be respected, and especially men who can't. Feminine men and trans men and gender-non-conforming men and non-straight men and so on. Even cis straight men who, for example, can't talk about their feelings, I want to fight all of that in addition to everything that's intended to support women. I feel strongly that helping women should be tied into helping everyone. Like, a holistic approach. By its nature that probably looks from the outside like I would still be helping women and nonbinary people a lot more, but there would be subtle differences that would probably get me lambasted in a lot of feminist spaces! So I am nervous to speak out about it.
So like, for example, in the trans community sometimes the nonbinary folks get thrown under the bus by binary trans people, who think that if they say "we are not like those silly deluded nonbinary otherkin pupself people" they are more likely to be taken seriously by The Establishment or whatever. (The patriarchy, I guess?) But when trans-supportive organisations start saying "trans and nonbinary people" instead of just "trans people", and when they start including nonbinary people in decision-making and policy and campaigns and awareness-raising, it doesn't actually make trans people seem less legit - it means that the people who listen to and trust the charities and organisations start taking nonbinary people into account, which is basically the ideal. So I also think that if we take care of everyone in the feminism movement, it'll go better for everyone. Rights for nonbinary people support rights for binary trans people, but the opposite is true. So I think if we work to let everyone express themselves however they want regardless of gender and work for equal opportunities for all regardless of gender, instead of just trying to boost women up to men's level, that's going to go better in the long run. Like, if we boost women up to men's level they're still only as high up as men, you know? And life can really suck for a lot of men because of the patriarchy we're fighting! I'd like to fight patriarchy, rather than men.
This has been a ramble. I'm not sure if it helps but there we are. Thanks for reading and listening. :)
I share AnonDefectsBrendan's feminism, though not as good at articulating.
Also OP seems to be conflating "feminism" and "feminists" with "female".
Thank you for your support. :) Also, I think I agree with the conflating point.
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Thank you for you input. I appreciate your perspective. I understand I can never fully understand what it's like to have lived an entire life as a disabled woman. I will share that I'm newly diagnosed with a degenerative disease. I appreciate your perspective, appreciate that you have a wealth of experiences to share, and if you'd like to join our team, I'd love to add you.
Excuse me for the dumb question but does "be rad" mean being rad or being a radfem?
Oh. That's not a dumb question at all. I meant "rad" as "rad, totally tubular, super cool", not "radfem". I mean, all fems are welcomed here, but only respectful, all inclusive commentary/moderation is allowed
Ah, good to know. Thank you.
I changed it to "be respectful" instead of "be rad" because it can be confusing. Thanks for pointing it out :D
I also feel alienated by wording around this being primarily a place for women.
Original feminism was just for white cis het women, and it failed many others. Then it made progress towards helping other groups of women. Things shouldn't stop there. We live in a world where the faux gender binary is increasingly being challenged, and the people who are pushing that boundary need to be just as much focused on.
Men are also regularly hurt by patriarchy, and feminism could do much in this regard. Anything that weakens the link between masculinity and violence and aggressive behavior would vs make the world safer for all of us.
Thank you for your input. I changed the wording yesterday.
If you are interested in helping to moderate the community, please let me know. I'm looking to build a diverse team.
Yay! Congrats on the new sub and good luck! 🍀
Small typo here. Thanks for opening this space and leading it.
Whoops! Thank you!