Occam's razor states that all other things being equal, it is better to choose the simplest explanation (or hypothesis). This is usually the explanation that uses the fewest assumptions. For instance, the common saying, "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" is an example of using Occam's razor. Malice assumes that the person in question feels a certain way or even planned out their behavior. Stupidity does not. Therefore, according to Occam's razor, stupidity is a more likely explanation. The more assumptions you make and the more complicated they are, the more likely you are to be wrong.

Now here are a few feminist ideas that I'd like to use as examples in this thread (some of them are repetitions of the same concept).

  • Men want women to stick to their gender roles because it benefits the man (at the woman's expense).

  • Men like women who are submissive and subservient.

  • Men only see women as sex objects.

Let's consider what role these ideas might have in two different real life situations.

Situation 1:
A man in a relationship with a woman does not help her with the housework.

Possible explanation for this behavior

  • Man wants the woman to stick to her designated gender role. He doesn't want to do woman's work, because he is a man and he thinks that it's beneath him.

  • He doesn't care about the house being clean, so he doesn't put any effort into keeping it clean.

  • He is lazy.

The first assumes that the man has certain traditional beliefs about gender roles. It assigns the man a very particular ideology as a motivation for his behavior. It assumes that he has a hierarchy of gendered tasks in his head. The second does not assume any particular motivation or ideology, just a general one. It only assumes that he doesn't care about housework. The third also makes very few assumptions. He is only not helping with the housework because he is lazy. That's it. Since the first relies on a more complicated assumption than the other two, it is less likely to be correct.

Situation 2:
A man in a relationship with a woman wants to have sex with her all the time.

Possible explanations

  • He sees the woman as a sex object. He doesn't view her as a complex human being with many things to offer. To him, she is only good for sex, so that's all he wants to do with her.

  • He is horny and is attracted to his woman so he wants to have a lot of sex with her.

The second explanation relies on two assumptions that were probable anyways. People who want to have sex are likely horny and likely attracted to the person they are trying to have sex with. However, the first explanation also introduces additional assumptions about how he views the woman as a person, and also perhaps women as a whole. It assumes that he doesn't value or recognize any of her other qualities. This is a more complicated explanation than the second, and is less likely to be correct.

Of course this isn't a hard fast rule. The simpler explanations are only more likely to be correct given no additional evidence. But as a heuristic, Occam's razor is the way to go when trying to figure out explanations for other people's behavior.