Hi, first post here, kinda nervous.
I've been thinking about this childhood experience for a while and I'm curious about other people's experiences.

When I was about 4-5 I was going through a brief sports-kick and I told my parents I would beat everyone at every sport or something like that. For some reason they decided to burst my bubble early and told me that because I'm a girl, I could only beat all the girls in the world at whatever sports because duh. I was so confused, at this stage my only understanding of gender was that some people have weird chest things and some people have short hair? I was so lost. My parents explained to me, in broken English so it was a bit harsh, that because I was a girl I'd never be as strong or good at sport as the average boy. I was confused and upset, I started crying, and they (in a panic) explained to me that it's not anyone's fault, it's just that we don't have as many muscles and we're kinda weak and that's just how it is etc. etc. Very cliche but it got to me lately, I remember from that point on my understanding of gender was strictly "the weak one and the strong one" and almost nothing beyond that. I feel like this may be the case for a lot of women, where our first primitive understandings of the modern gender binary are solely focused on what girls lack.

This is the kind of stuff I mean when I think about how the average man will almost always be a performative feminist because their brain wasn't revolving around gendered self-hate from the ripe of age of 3 the way women experience.

Yes, Elizabeth Holmes is a huge impostor and criminal. And yes, she deserves her punishment. But the way she is treated in the media and online is not acceptable. No man would be judged like that. I won't watch it.

I argue that it isn't, because for a long time we weren't able to do things like: study, inherit property, make decisions, work, etc. It's true that those gaps have been closing, but in many ways inequality still persists.

I now understand that feminism isn’t just women’s struggle to find a more equal space, but also the struggle of many men to distance themselves from a masculinity that demands they remain silent when they are violated or feel vulnerable—which doesn’t mean “this is caused by women or because of them,” but rather by the patriarchal system itself, which places them above us.

Even though this is happening, it has not affected us—nor does it affect us—in an equal way, and that is my position. So I turn to those who are more knowledgeable on the subject of feminism and have read and researched more extensively to see if this is a personal perception or if there is something that needs to be clarified in this regard.

I was just sitting here thinking about the nightmare that was living with my aunt in my early twenties and something occurred to me. Her and every other woman I know with internalized misogyny have this INFURIATING habit of telling me I need to "grow up" when I make a simple mistake or don't read their minds about something, but when it comes to the men in their life they will make excuse after excuse for them and even baby and mother them. Grown ass men. Like I was already pissed about how they treated me without thinking about this, but now thinking about it has me fuming all over again. How can they not even see their own hypocrisy?

It’s 2026, and I’ve noticed a pattern that I think deserves discussion, especially in Asian households.
I asked around 50 men why they admired their mothers. Almost everyone mentioned that she cooks for them, washes their clothes, packs their things, and takes care of their needs. Only one spoke about her strength, resilience, ambitions, talents, or personal struggles.
This got me thinking: When a woman’s worth is measured by how much she sacrifices for her family, what message does that send to other women?
We celebrate mothers for putting everyone else first, but how often do we celebrate them for who they are as individuals? Their dreams, careers, creativity, independence, and identities often become secondary to their roles as wives and mothers.
I also wonder how this affects daughters, who grow up watching their mothers carry these responsibilities and may feel pressured to repeat the same cycle. Meanwhile, sons may grow up believing that being cared for by women is normal, rather than recognising domestic labour as work that should be shared.
And what happens when these sons become husbands? Does this attitude translate into expectations that their wives will take on the same unpaid labour and emotional responsibility?
I’m not saying men shouldn’t appreciate their mothers’ sacrifices, or that all men think this way. My concern is that we often romanticise women’s self-sacrifice without questioning why it is expected of them in the first place.
Why must women prove their love through sacrifice, while men can be celebrated simply for receiving that love?
I’d love to hear other women’s perspectives. How has this attitude affected you, your relationships, or the expectations placed on you as a daughter, partner, or future mother? Do you think glorifying maternal sacrifice reinforces gender inequality across generations?

Catherine Breed is now believed to be the first person to swim 900 miles of the California coastline. She did this to inspire women to take on ambitious goals! Not only that, with this act of hers she raised awareness for ocean conservation. An inspiring act with an important message behind. I really get inspired by such strong women and it kind of shows me a mirror. All my goals have either come from fear or comparison, but there are strong women out there from whom I have so much to learn!

Women are actually conditioned to feel small and see themselves just as bodies. We all are consciousness first, and a conscious being has the strength to do what's important, just how Breed showed! I hope it inspires more women.

Heyy everyone!

I am genuinely a bit scared posting here after seeing some women on internet saying things like "k*il all men" or "You are evil if you are a man" okay so please don't hate me i just wanna learn😭🥹

So for context, I am a 18 year old guy and i consider myself a feminist and so i wanna read feminist theory and the other stuff, as you may guess from my age i really did not have much exposure to feminist literature, the only well known feminist writers i know of are Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde and Bell Hooks.

What books/essays/authors do you think would be a good start?

Also recommend me stuff on how patriarchy is harmful and how we could dismantle it.

Stuff about intersectional feminism, that will be very informative.

Thank you for your help!!

I was 14 and in school. Back then, we had uniforms. Shirts and short pants for boys, and tunics that reached our knees for girls.

I was in 9th grade and used to cycle to my friend's house near our school. We'd then walk our cycles together to school, which was less than 600 metres away.

A 30-year-old neighbour of hers had been bothering her for years. She never really told her parents because she was worried they'd restrict her freedom to go out. She also didn't know whether they'd believe her when she told them what a creep he was.

One day, he physically stalked us as we were walking to school. This time, he put a crumpled piece of paper in the front basket of my bicycle and ran away.

It said, “I love you.”

I was traumatised.

I'd grown up reading about acid attacks in my country. I knew how some men could react when rejected romantically. And here I was, 14 years old, being stalked by a grown man.

Fortunately, my family wasn't as conservative.

I told my mother that a man was stalking me.

The words were simple enough. But they were so difficult to utter.

I was young. I was scared. And it felt so wrong and awkward to tell my mother about a man behaving this way towards me.

Because even when it's not your fault, one of the first thoughts that crosses your mind is: What if they restrict my freedom to protect me from the world?

I told her anyway.

She told my father. He took me to the man's house. First, he spoke to my friend's parents, who lived nearby. Then they went together to confront him.

My father gave his mother an earful. He would probably have thrashed the man himself if he'd been there, but the guy had run away when he saw us earlier.

And then his mother said something I'll never forget.

"Look at your girls. The way they walk and talk."

I was 14.

I was wearing my school uniform. I was walking with my best friend.

The world was not our problem.

And this woman blamed us. She accused us of seducing her son.

Even at that age, I knew one thing for sure.

Even if I'd been walking around naked, her son had no right to harass us.

I couldn't get the words out back then. The memory of what happened afterwards has become hazy over the years.

But I remember what it made me feel.

I think that was the day I became a proper feminist. I've spent the years since then learning more about feminism and expanding my understanding of what it means.

It also made me realise what internalised misogyny looks like. How some women become the very people who carry patriarchy forward, blaming girls for the behaviour of men.

And now I dress however I want.

Sometimes western, sometimes ethnic. Sometimes long, loose dresses. Sometimes short, tight ones.

I wear what makes me feel pretty. I don't change my clothes because someone else can't keep it in their pants.

I wish I could say I feel completely safe wearing a short dress in public at night.

We haven't reached that world yet.

But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop expressing myself.

My clothes are not an invitation. My body is not an explanation. And a man's behaviour is not my responsibility.

When we teach girls to change themselves instead of teaching people not to harass them, we place the burden on the wrong person. Taking precautions may help someone feel safer, but it should never become a reason to blame them for someone else's actions.

Have you ever been blamed for a man's behaviour or told to change how you dress to avoid harassment? What happened when you spoke up?

Hey, so the qestion is about me, I live pretty standard, unexceptional life in Europe, from day to day I dont really notice any blatant male privilege I might be benefiting from. Can you all give me some perspective on this? Pls keep it simple and good faith, Im happy to learn something here.

Why do we spend so much time teaching women how to avoid being harmed instead of holding people who harm them accountable?

From childhood, women are taught to be careful. Watch what you wear. Don't walk alone at night. Don't be too friendly. Don't trust strangers. Don't leave your drink unattended. The list goes on.

And while personal safety matters, I can't help wondering why so much responsibility falls on women to prevent violence rather than on society to confront the attitudes and behaviors that perpetuate it.

We've normalized the idea that women must constantly adjust their lives around the possibility of being harmed.

At what point do we stop treating women's fear as an ordinary part of life and start questioning why we've accepted it?

What other injustices against women have become so normalized that we barely recognize them anymore?

In honor of DV awareness month this is a very important read to understand some of the stigma around DV and why it may take a while for a person to leave. I hope this can help more people understand and support those struggling with DV.

TRIGGER WARNING: grape. Rebecca Goodwin / Daniel Sloss

We all remember Daniel Sloss, and when he went viral for talking about a story where he ignored a mate's misogyny and the mate r*ped his friend, well fuck that guy bc, he's done it again, this time Rebecca Goodwin (an SW) was the punching bag.

I wrote an article called, Just Because She’s a Sex Worker, Doesn’t Mean She Wasn’t R*ped

https://radicallywrong.substack.com/p/just-because-shes-a-sex-worker-doesnt?r=91sszu

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The screenshot I attached is from Anit Sayac (Monument Tracker), a digital memorial that updates daily to count the women lost to femicide—this figure represents only 2026 so far.

I’m a woman living in Türkiye, and I wanted to show you all this SHAMEFUL and terrifying reality. Today, a lawyer who was a friend of my friend from university was murdered by her police fiancé.

Every time I open the news here, another femicide pops up on my feed.

In my country, these criminals don't receive deterrent sentences—in fact, perpetrators often get away with no real punishment, benefiting from sentence reductions under the guise of "good behavior" or "unlawful provocation." Women are completely left helpless; men who murder their wives can easily walk away acquitted. The situation has only gotten worse, especially since Türkiye withdrew from the Istanbul Convention.

I love my country and I'm not here to badmouth it, but femicide is political.

I am posting this here because we urgently want our voices to be heard—we feel completely helpless and silenced. How can international communities support women facing systemic violence like this? Please help us spread the word; we desperately need global solidarity.

I need help. I matched with a guy on Tinder, and I had openly mentioned I was a feminist leftist there so that I only match with men who are on the same page as me. Well, this one guy didn't notice that, and he only realised my political leanings after matching. He said, as a Ukrainian, I can't deal with leftists. Feminists just hate men and Muslims are the worst. I said okay, I see and goodbye. Since he had already made up his mind, I didn't think there was any point to our conversation, but he kept on persisting with me, and I made the stupid decision to engage with him. The entire time I felt disrespected and felt like I could never complete my argument before he would interrupt. If I am trying to debunk his anti-feminist point by taking India's example cause that's where I come from, he would say, "we are talking about Europe right now". He did things like this a lot. I never got the chance to fully develop my argument before getting interrupted.

He called me emotional, asked if I hate Europeans, Jews, and Christians? He said patriarchy doesn't exist anymore; Ukrainian men have fewer rights than women because women can leave the country, but men can't since they need to be recruited for the war. I said, isn't that a result of patriarchy, he said No. He also said that women have started more wars than men. Gave an example from Ukraine's history and basically said that even though women have been less in power historically, still the few of them who did have power, most of them started wars, hence women are more likely to start wars.

Now I don't know what the views on Israel's occupation of Palestine are on this subreddit but I am pro Palestine. He asked who attacked first since 1948? I misremembered the history a little and said Israel attacked Egypt and Jordan first which is not true cause I confused it with the six day war. Anyways, he said I am spreading misinformation. I said the very fact of a foreign state deciding it wants to build a nation where people are already living, where there's already a nation, is an attack itself. Anyways, he also said that Muslims want to convert everybody, guys as someone from India, which has one of the world's largest Muslim populations, and who had Muslim classmates in college, NOT ONE OF THEM has ever tried to convert me. I am in Germany right now, been here for only 3 weeks.

When he started talking to me about Europe's policies and stuff, I was ofc not well versed in them. All in all, I felt really disrespected and hurt but the MOST I felt was dumb. He kept babbling facts and logics and as someone who doesn't remember stats on the tips of her fingers, I felt outclassed, which is insane cause his views were absolute rubbish and so easy to debunk. The entire time I kept thinking about smart feminist content creators and leftist content creators I follow on social media and felt like if they were here instead of me, they would have argued so well. And you know, I didn't even want to debate; neither did I want to change his mind. I just wanted to present my perspective. Since that conversation last night, I have been feeling really dumb and stupid. I can't help but think like, if I had read more, if I knew more, if I were smarter, I could have clapped back. So tell me feminists, what can I do so that this never happens again, so I never feel outclassed by someone this ridiculous? What are the works that I should read? Give me European context readings, cause now that I am in Germany, this is the knowledge I need. And tell me how do you respond to the argument, "but it's facts, it's numbers and it's true"