recently there have been plenty of articles published on the internet about feminists complaining about why fewer and fewer women are identifying as feminists. also, the occasional "concerned" feminist comes to this subreddit and asks why men's right is not aligned with feminism, "even though the men's rights movement shares plenty of goals with feminism."

before i answer why i'm not a feminist, let me first post the two answers feminists i have seen feminists give:

1) feminists will get on their high horses, thinking they're the intellectuals in the room, and assume that those who don't identify as feminists are simply ignorant of the subject. (side note: i've observed that feminists do this for every subject). they'll blame the masses and their "ignorance" for not understanding their oversimplified definition of feminism: equal opportunity for men and women. however, anyone who has truly paid attention to what feminism is knows that modern feminism isn't truly about equal opportunity. i'll get to this point later.

2) they'll blame the right-wing media (rush limbaugh show, fox news, etc.) for distorting the meaning of feminism and spreading misinformation. this is somewhat similar to the first answer, where feminists assume people just don't understand feminism, but the key distinction here is that feminists have targeted right-wing ideology. over at r/askfeminist, i said that feminism has only itself to blame for its dwindling numbers. i got banned for it later, and as a result i observed another thing: feminists don't want to accept responsibility. instead of trying to understand other, different reasons than theirs for as to why more women are rejecting the feminist label, they'll just resort blaming rush limbaugh, sarah palin, etc., and ignorance in general.

now, here's why i'm not a feminist: to be a feminist by today's standard, you have to be pro-abortion, pro-big government, pro-conspiracy theory, and pro-political correctness. i am none of those.

abortion: despite feminist claims of inclusiveness, if you're pro-life, they'll tell you that you can't be a feminist. recent gallup polling shows that slightly more women identify as pro-life than they do pro-choice (46-44). if the numbers are correct, that means roughly 46% of women and 53% of men are already disqualified from feminism. is this a result of people's ignorance on feminism? no, it's the result of their stance on abortion.

conspiracy theories: feminists claim that they're not the man-haters that the right-wing media portrays them to be, but their main theory about the patriarchy blames male dominance for all of society's ills. i find it hard to believe that you wouldn't hate something that created all the problems in the world, but that's a discussion i won't go further into. my point here is that feminism is more than just "equal opportunity." to be a modern feminist, you have to believe in "the patriarchy" and "rape culture," something the average person would scoff at. to feminists, whoever denies the existence of the patriarch is doing the patriarch's bidding. imagine if i came up to you and said that there's an organization planning to kidnap all our women and we must stop it and if you don't believe me, you're working for them. it's crazy talk, and that is one of the reasons i'm not a feminist.

politics: big sister feminism relies on big government to work for them. i remember being told that feminists went from relying on their husbands and fathers to relying on the state. that tidbit has stuck with me ever since. feminism would never survive without the government imposing affirmative action, or without the government funding feminist organizations and initiatives, including giving students money to go to college for gender studies courses, or without the government creating policies that lift women up at the expense of men.

the "skills" received from "feminist studies" education aren't valued in any profession other than feminist studies teaching. the only environment where "women's studies" is welcomed is in academia. so essentially the government is paying people to take courses that have no value outside the place the government is paying them to go to. gender studies in academia is mainly a "western thing," just compare the amount of gender studies department western countries have with non-western countries. in a free market system, feminism would quickly die out - which is why the feminists in the u.s. target right-wing ideology. it's not just because the current right-wing party in the u.s. (the republican party) is opposed to abortion, but because the ideologues in the republican party favor policies that threaten the well-being of feminism.

if it is often, and correctly, said that feminism is a branch of marxism. in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the first wave feminists (whose goals i agree with) fought the oppression from the government. this era of feminism was the true "equal opportunity" movement, because that's all the feminists had asked for. in the present day u.s. we already have equal opportunity for women, which is why fewer women are identifying as feminists - because they don't feel feminism is any longer necessary. the feminist waves afterwards (1960 and beyond) are using the government itself to further their agenda to deconstruct society because they see it as oppressive. modern feminists are arming themselves with government power to combat what they believe to be the negative societal implications of being a woman (just go look up how many "equal pay" laws are in the books; one would think only one law is necessary). as a men's right activist, i am more concerned with neutralizing the government than with the societal implications of being a man (i believe the latter will be self-corrected as the culture changes). neutralizing the government of course involves disarming feminists from their government tools, which means limiting the scope of government.

lastly, i reject political correctness. i don't think being politically correct is really a requirement for feminism, but it is practiced within the movement. according to feminists, advising your daughters and sisters and friends not to get drunk is victim blaming. and so is asking them to dress modestly. another disagreement i have with them is slut-shaming. i think society should shame whomever and whatever it wants: sluts, virgins, single mothers, deadbeat dads, etc.. shame has always been the one powerful tool societies have used to combat undesirable behavior, and if a society feels it needs to utilize that tool, so be it; i just don't want the government getting involved. i'm not going to cater to everyone's sensitivities. the recent todd akin fiasco demonstrated how powerful political correctness is. i believe todd akin was genuinely ignorant of the female reproduction system, and thus wasn't intentionally being insensitive. i just hope the outrage was over his ignorance rather than his choice of words ("legitimate rape"). the way the media fueled the outrage was a disappointing sight to behold.

these are my reasons, and i'd like to read yours. why aren't you a feminist?