Hello. I am a woman and a recent redditor whose boyfriend is subscribed to this subreddit.

First of all, let me say that I agree with a lot of the stuff posted here. I’m glad there’s a forum for discussing these issues.

After looking at some of the content though, I have a question that I thought you guys could help me out with.

I’m looking at your definitions of feminism, and the sexist ideas that seem inherent to feminism are things that I speak out against pretty actively. However, there are a few issues I would also also like to speak up for that (as of now) are pretty specific to women. The right to take oral contraception, for example, doesn’t really yet apply to men. (It might soon, I think a male oral contraceptive is in development, but it’s not there yet.) Also, right to abort in the case of rape. And I support body-positivity for both genders, but the conversation about body-positivity differs between genders, because the unrealistic expectations/stereotypes are different (big boobs small waist vs. big muscles tall etc) You get the idea. This is NOT to say that the woman-specific issues are “worse” or “more important” than those confronting men. But they are there. I want to speak up for human rights, and some of those differ between genders.

So, how would you recommend that women like me identify? If the word “feminist” embodies all sorts of nasty sexism, what should women who hate all forms of sexism but want to embody a female-positive (as opposed to female-negative, not as opposed to male-positive) attitude?

I ask this primarily because I was always taught that this female-positivity was what feminism was all about, and that you could still support men’s equal rights and be a feminist. Now I don’t know what the thing I thought feminism was, is. If that makes sense. And I want a word to describe my original conception of it.

What do you guys think of just “female-positive” and “male-positive?” Kind of like “sex-positive” but for gender-specific issues.

I hope this doesn’t offend. I’m just trying to educate myself here.

EDIT: changed "male contraceptive" to "male oral contraceptive" - obviously there's already a male contraceptive. oops :)

EDIT THE SECOND: Thank you everyone for answering my questions! I'm finding this conversation to be informative, you have very interesting perspectives and I'll certainly take them into account when responding to the question of whether I identify as a feminist.