Recently, Upworthy walked around New Orleans asking men whether or not they believed in equal rights for women. Thankfully, all of them said yes. Interestingly, though, when they were asked instead whether they considered themselves to be feminists, only a third of them said yes—two thirds of men who answered that they believed in equal rights for women answered that no, they were not feminists.
However, once Upworthy gave these guys the dictionary definition of feminism (“the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities,” according to Webster), most of them agreed that it was possible they could be feminists, too.
Feminism is a word that can scare people off, and one that is associated with some rather unpleasant (and extremely outdated) stereotypes. Feminists don’t hate men, they don’t all burn their bras, and some of them even shave their legs. Feminists just want equality. If you think that women and men should earn the same amount of money for the same quality of work, that they should be offered the same opportunities in the workplace, and that they should generally be treated the same—guess what? You’re probably a feminist, too.
Watch what these guys did when they found out that their beliefs qualified as feminism: