FEMINISTS! What exactly *is* a feminist? What are they in favor of?

Feminism is seen as almost a bad word. There are extreme feminists, as there are extremists in any culture/school of thought.

Not all muslims are terrorists. Not all catholics were in the IRA. Not all Protestants were in the UVF. And not all feminists hate men!

I believe in equality and in the ideals of feminism which state that women and men should have equality - NOT uniformity. The two are often confused and people should perhaps do some research on the differences.

I would regard myself as feminist in as much as I will not allow myself to be disregarded or treated in a disadvantageous way purely based on my sex. However I do not believe in the destruction of men, or hate men, or anything of that nature! I also dislike injustice for men in the family courts and how dads are ignored in general by society. I dislike how disabled people are treated differently. I dislike racism. Being aware of feminist principles has allowed me not to devote my life to putting down men, but to being aware of the injustice for every human in this little world in which we live. I think that is the comendable outcome of the challenge that feminism made to the middle class white male domination of everything.

I consider myself to be a feminist, although I might not be considered one by any technical standards...what it means to me is that all I truly want is for men and women to be viewed and treated equally despite the gender differences. Yes, there are going to be differences in men and women's minds--it's a scientific fact. But the point is, I don't want people judging me or any other woman on the fact that we are not male.

Last year we did a school project where we had to draw out what our biggest dream in life was or what we saw ourselves as in ten years. I was the only one in my class who didn't put married and/or with kids in these categories. This is the kind of thing I want to get rid of. Girls grow up with an unspoken pressure to get married, but boys don't. Your main goal in life as a woman should not be to meet a guy and get married. You should just live your life for you, and then if you meet a guy that you love, then you should want to be married. But girls are supposed to be "sugar, spice and everything nice" and never act like the boys. It shouldn't be that way. I'm often looked down on because I don't want children, but several of my guy friends don't want children and are never looked down on. Our society teaches that women should be the ones to want to get married and have babies and stay home and take care of them. Feminists like me just want to erase the prejudices so that all women can choose for themselves what they want in life without biases. If they choose to have children and stay at home because that's what would truly make them happy, good for them, i'm proud of them. But they shouldn't be pressured into it.

Feminism is no longer about true gender-equality (it was during the suffragist era), but rather about women's issues, female supremacy, female power, female domination matriarchist ideology, misandristic ideology, reverse-sexism -- all usually at men's expense and detriment. Most feminists will of course deny this. Realists see feminism for what it is.

Feminism is about giving women special benefits and all the advantage. Plus, they love hand-out.