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What happens when you declare yourself a feminist in your Tinder profile? Some spectacularly crazy stuff, of course. Instagram user Feminist_Tinder put it out there and posted screenshots of men's reactions. What's the word for predictably sad and gross yet also funny?
You would think that including the word "feminist" would weed out any anti-feminist suitors on Tinder and attract the kind of men who are at least well-informed and comfortable with feminism. But then, that's not how digital life plays out. If anything, Feminist_Tinder seems to attract trolls eager to pick a fight.
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She spends a lot of time trying to correct misconceptions about feminism with wit and humor. It's not about women being better than men. It's not about women hating men. It's not about women wanting to be like men. It's about striving for equality.
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[/code]It's 2015 can we please stop acting like feminism is the antithesis to femininity?
A photo posted by @feminist_tinder on
Here's a shot of this great hair, by the way. She is correct.
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Some guys seemed confused as to what a woman like her was even doing on Tinder in the first place. I mean, if you're not here for the grammatically incorrect, misspelled, clumsily worded, sexually explicit come-ons, why are you there at all? You know?
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Some guys seem to confuse feminism with a sexual fetish. Oh my ... is there a missed opportunity here or what?
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Some people get it, though.
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[/code]A photo posted by @feminist_tinder on
And that gives me a little bit of hope for this woman. She's definitely wasting precious time on pugilistic jerks who are incapable of treating women with respect. But there are a few who want to have a real conversation with her, and that seems to be something she wants out of Tinder ... well, one of the things.
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Can she change the culture on Tinder this way, though? This guy (below) makes an interesting point (in his clumsy way). I have to confess, my boyfriend was raised by feminists-in-all-but-name and is amazingly enlightened on gender issues. But when we first met he was surprised that I refer to myself as a feminist and we had many conversations where I explained what it means to me, and how that's different from how he'd seen the term before. I think he might have agreed with this guy, at some point.
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I completely agree that this habit many men have of giving unsolicited advice on bio writing is obnoxious. And to her point -- about liking vegetables -- if feminism is very important to you, why wouldn't you put it out there? How is this different from saying "passionate about politics"? Because that's kind of what she's saying when she introduces herself this way -- she's looking for a guy who LIKES that she's a feminist, and also likes that she's got strong opinions.
Is she going to turn off a lot of guys this way? Sure ... but I don't think she wants a lot of guys. I think she's looking for a certain kind of guy, and they really are out there.
Meanwhile, she's also changing the dating landscape for other women, little by little.
Image via Feminist_Tinder/Instagram
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.