The biggest pitfall to our movement is the very people who are supposed to stand up for it

Firstly, let me preface this by saying, yes, I am all up for people expressing themselves and voicing their opinions, and I think, most likely, this was the intent at the beginning. But it has reached a point where all that is happening is people are retaliating to our movement, and, frankly, their retorts are doing way more damage than an offhand tweet or facebook post.<br><br>Here are a few points that I think perfectly illustrate what I mean;<br>1. Our movement has been widely regarded as some attempt at misandry. Those claiming this are mostly men, but there are women in this category too. I think we can both agree that the word "feminism" has some very negative connotations attached to it. This is because popular culture says that the feminists want to be treated as equals, but want to be treated better, too, simply because they are women.<br>2. Politics. A lot of the politics, especially the two major parties, have gone about...mishandling our movement. Yes, that's what I'll say. They have mishandled the message that we are trying to convey. I live in New Zealand, but I've seen the US politics handle this in a way that makes it look like they're saying that we want women to rule men. That is not what feminism is. Feminism is, in the words of Lana Del Rey, "The thought that women should have the same right as men is not very interesting to me, but I do care deeply about how men and women relate." It's not to say that women should rule men, or be treated better, but that they should be treated with as much respect as any man.<br>3. I think this point is the one that I am most passionate about: internalized misogyny. Women who, likely because of the stigma, refuse to identify with feminism. Women who are afraid of retaliatory "punishments" simply for being open about who they are and what they believe in. I've seen a huge amount of backlash towards the movement, and in actuality, the most vehement opponents of our movement ARE women who identify as "non-feminist". I think that the women who do this believe that they are above this, that they are immune to this, and they are trying to escape the stigma simply for the sake of avoiding shame and fear of being ostracised. I want to tell these women that their silence is deafening. What they are doing, is being misogynists. They are perpetuating the stigma of feminism and telling women to just humour men out of the way. They are fueling the fire that is patriarchy.<br><br>The pitfall to our movement is the internalized misogyny. This is what is stopping us from reaching the equality that we strive for.