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Lately I hear a lot of people who are on about 'equalism' or 'humanism' or 'Men's Rights'. From all of them, I tend to hear the same thing. "I don't just worry about women's issues! I want things to be fair and equal for everyone!"

You know what? Me, too.

I don't think it's fair that male victims of rape or domestic abuse are silenced because "that only happens to girls," and that men are denied part of the spectrum of emotion by being told that "boys don't cry," or to "man up." I don't think it's fair that 1 in 3 women will be raped in her lifetime, and that women are considered sex objects first and human beings second (if at all). I don't think it's fair that LGBTQ people are not allowed to marry everywhere, and that LGBTQ people are still considered abominations and hideously mistreated in many countries. I don't think it's fair that people of colour are discriminated against in a million subtle and not-subtle ways every day. I don't think it's fair that fat people are seen as belonging to the public domain, as though everyone has the right to judge them or Other them based on body size. I don't think it's fair that disabled people are invisibled and silenced about their experiences, forced to put on a cheerful smile (but not too cheerful!) and reassure everyone that really they're just fine, because society likes disabled people to be noble sufferers.

I don't think it's fair that we are expected to police ourselves in order to behave in accordance with societal rules that damage everyone, regardless of ethnicity or gender or sexuality or religion or anything else. I don't think a power structure that is intrinsically damaging, conferring privilege on the few at the expense of all, including the privileged, is good for anyone.

But I also have a belief system that I can use to fight that. I have a belief system that wants things to be fairer and more equal for everyone. I have a belief system that says that men can cry, that women are people, that every human being born and living in this glorious, terrible, messy world deserves to count as a whole autonomous human being worthy of dignity and respect no matter what.

It's called feminism.

Feminism is not man-hating. Feminism is not just about women's issues. Feminism is everything that the patriarchy--or the kyriarchy--is not: Equality. Fairness. Openness. For everyone.

So why are we wasting our energy and time arguing about the word when we really mean the same thing?