I was sitting in my Rhetorical Criticism class the other day and we were discussing feminist criticism. I knew that there was a negative stigma attached to feminism but not to the extent that the majority of our class would be uncomfortable labeling themselves as feminists. I assumed that mostly everyone was a feminist because equal rights and respect is the most logical thing to believe in–yet here we are in 2016 and “feminism” is still a bad word.
This got me thinking about relationships; personally I could only date someone if they were a feminist so I decided to conduct a social experiment on how men react to feminism. Naturally I went on Tinder, where the best relationships are made. I began by simply putting “feminist” in my description. This did not really work because no one really brought it up so I decided to take a more direct role and just ask if they were feminists.
When swiping left or right I wasn’t picky at first–I swiped right on everyone. I actually ran out of likes, which I did not know was possible but there is a limit to how thirsty someone can be. After this happened I began to swipe according to types. At first I only liked country boys who held fish in their pictures. I did not match with any of them (I have purple hair and my bio says that I’m an “antibacterial soft single” so this isn’t all that surprising). Then I began to like those that were more my taste plus some random ones that were “dtf” as the kids say.
I was pleasantly surprised because mostly everyone said that they were feminists, there were only a select few that weren’t. However, it was unsettling that mostly everyone needed clarification on what exactly feminism was in the sense that they were weary that it was more about death to all men rather than death to all sexism and misogyny.
Below are some more of the responses. I wouldn’t look for the feminist man of your dreams on Tinder but anything is possible!
Disclaimer: This experiment was made out of pure curiosity and by no means am I trying to say that women need a feminist man or any man for that matter. Self love is the most important!