Apparently my original post in /r/politics got removed. I felt that this was political but I guess others disagreed. I was told to repost here so here ya go!

So why did I write this? Some guy complained about modern feminists on facebook. I wrote this because he was getting hammered by women who thought the guy was sexist, horrible and otherwise the bane of society. All he said was something like "Feminists are fighting for the wrong ideas and making it worse". I actually don't have his status anymore because as I was writing this, he had to delete the entire conversation because of how violent it was getting against him. Anyway, this is what I wanted to write.

Maybe he is complaining about the fact feminism is no longer about equality but about demands and recompense. Our generation of women are not oppressed just as our generation of men don't oppress women. Some feminists feel like we owe them something but we do not. The same can be said about African-Americans blaming whites for past actions or jews blaming the germans. It is ludicrous that newly educated people can be held accountable for the actions of their predecessors.

There are no longer any laws barring women from having high salary jobs, from voicing their opinions, or doing anything that a male can do. So what is feminism about? It is about changing how people think, how society has molded woman into itself. Woman take lower salary jobs. Why? Because these are the jobs that women held back when women COULDN't take the higher salary jobs. There are less women in upper management. Why? Less woman are qualified because of social upbringing and/or location (which has changed) OR the people who hire/promote them think that a woman would not do a job as well as a man (sexism).

Can a feminist change how a girl was raised or where she came from? Not really. It is just like how many African-Americans are far below the poverty line. Society has to slowly heal itself and reaccept or rebalance the people who were ONCE repressed. Government programs can and do help these people.

Can a feminist change how other people think? My opinion is no, but apparently some think they can. It has become a social stigma for a man to defend himself against a feminist. If a man and a woman try out for the same job and the man gets it, the manager who hired the man can be called a sexist and people WILL ACCEPT THAT, oftentimes without any defense from the manager. What civilized society can look down on a man for not holding a door for a woman (look how rude he is) and also hate him for holding the door (what a sexist pig, just trying to get in my pants)?

This Mccarthy style feminism of calling men sexist just because you didn't get what you want and without proof is what is actually separating the gender lines EVEN MORE. Now that society is all about socialization and reputation instead of brute strength, the idea of who is the 'stronger' gender is changing. It is illegal for a man to beat a woman but it is almost encouraged for a woman to find and point out "that man who has been holding her back" which can completely tarnish and destroy an otherwise innocent man.

I am not saying there aren't sexist men and they may be getting exactly what they deserve when found out. But I have never met a man who HAS NOT been called a sexist. Even jokingly is it kind of sickening. "'I like burnettes' 'Wow, way to objectify women'"

You can't change what people think and it is not right too even if you could. You need to educate people, especially the younger generation and honestly just wait for the older generation of sexists to die out. Eventually, the only sexists left will be those who were brought up in sexist homes and as is becomes less and less prevalent, those will change over as well. But the way we are doing it now is only making men hate women even more. It is getting hard for a male to voice his opinion without fear of retribution even when what he is saying has no sexist connotations. This fear and anger will lead to men still treating women differently just because they are women. Now instead of women not being offered jobs because 'the man doesnt think she is qualified' they may not be offered a job because 'the man is scared/angry or just plain hates women now'.

I know there are some wide, sweeping generalizations in this such as "Our generation of women are not oppressed just as our generation of men don't oppress women." Yes, I know some women are oppressed especially in other parts of the world. I hope you can understand what I am trying to say which would translate into "From my experience in the USA, it would seem that most women are not being oppressed by men and that they dictate where they are going and what they will do throughout their life."

TLDR Feminism has too much power to hurt those who are innocent and is just making men dislike women which is actually widening the gap between the genders.