I made some off-hand comment the other day about “Red Pill dudes” and, as I kind of expected the second I hit post, I got a comment reminding me (rather politely, tbf) that The Red Pill1 community exists to help men and doesn’t apply to every kind of Manosphere Guy. He was right, of course, and I was using the term lazily and more colloquially than anything else.
Speaking of using terms lazily and colloquially when specificity and nuance would be more helpful, most people also use broad, inaccurate terminology to describe feminism and feminists — and don’t get me started on political labels for anything left of center. They are not all “liberals” and a good chunk of the left deeply loathe actual liberals. They are also not all leftists — liberals fucking hate leftists almost as much as leftists hate leftists.
Anyway, back to feminism.
Aside from the usual “wave” delineations, there are also different subtypes of feminists who prioritize different aspects of the ideology. I’ve compiled a list of the more visible feminist archetypes that have an online presence and their primary traits and beliefs:
Liberal Feminist
Proud "girlboss"; focuses advocacy and activism on policy — politically safe-enough issues like abortion, the wage gap, getting women involved in STEM and other male-dominated fields; patron saint is Ruth Bader Ginsberg; enjoys watching women act like stereotypical men in movies; will vote for any Democratic woman for president because it’s her turn; sex-positive; loves symbolic gestures like pussy hats2 and online petitions; "believe all women."
Intersectional feminist
More likely to identify as nonbinary than female; MeToo’d her ex-boyfriend for watching lesbian porn; fights for racial justice and queer visibility and avoids anything directly related to women’s rights because she wants to stop “centering cishet white women”; BDSM practitioner by default; probably a communist; “Black trans women started Pride”; polyamorous and calls herself queer but only has sex with other women when one of her boyfriends is involved.
Egalitarian Feminist
Intuitively calls herself a feminist because she’s a woman and interested in her own rights and fairness in general, but easily feels empathy for male causes because what she’s after is legal equality and mutual respect, not supremacy; "I see your point, but what about..."; tries to convince men of their shared victimhood under patriarchy and is confused when they don’t respond well to her approach; disowned by radfems; fine with trans people but doesn't want to be called a "uterus-owner" or pretend abortion is "actually a queer issue"; most likely to become an evopsych-adjacent, anti-idpol, NLOG3 auntie once she hits her 30s.4
Radfem
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Most concerned with sex-based, biological oppression; most closely identifies with the 2nd-wavers from the 60s and 70s; necessarily TERF; believes no progress has been made since women won the right to vote in 1920; all porn is rape and causes rape; literally hates men and is really loud about it all the time; sometimes a political lesbian, or single, and if she’s dating a man, she’s very quiet about it lest she be accused of Not My Nigel-ing; Andrea Dworkin is her patron saint; doesn’t believe in gender and wants artificial wombs because Mother Nature is actually an oppressor, too (gender traitor); probably considers herself a Marxist; obsessed with rape, especially rape that is perpetuated by men pretending to be trans women in order to assault women in public bathrooms.
Conservative Feminist
Cares most about preserving and promoting the institution of marriage and the nuclear family unit; radicalized by trans girls in girls' youth sports and girls’ bathrooms; doesn’t tend to have anything in common with literally any other type of feminist except the explicitly Christian ones and Radfems on only this one very specific issue; only identifies as a feminist when she thinks it gives her credibility on Leftist Twitter or a suburban PTA meeting; TERF/SWERF by default.
Christian Feminist
Basically a Conservative Feminist but with abortion as her primary motivator instead of trans girls playing on girls’ sports teams in high school (although she opposes that, too); cares most about abortion and uses her conditional concern for women who have them to claim a feminist title for political clout; “don’t degrade yourself by having premarital sex!”; only Conservative Feminists consider her to be a real feminist.
Hippie Feminist
Nature is her entire personality; probably Wiccan or pagan; chronically naked at inappropriate times; talks about women's superior spiritual abilities and connection to God or the universe or some vague goddess; only eats organic food and makes her own soap from the backyard goats; always in a long, flowing dress; has been under the influence of marijuana or mushrooms since 1998; anti-vax; festy girl-to-tradwife pipeline.
Honorable mentions:
Covert Feminist:
Conservative woman who associates feminism with liberal politics and so insists she isn’t one but has all the entitlement of which liberal feminists are often accused, primarily regarding expecting men to perform traditional masculine roles that regular feminists eschew and then dismissing the idea of following traditional feminine roles, herself; is actually Tomi Lahren.
Not-A-Feminist Feminist:
Liberal or moderate woman who, mirroring the Covert Feminist, believes everything that liberal feminists believe but who won’t call herself a feminist because she knows it’s a controversial term and doesn’t want to argue or make people dislike her.
*This list is for entertainment purposes only. Any criticism of my tongue-in-cheek summaries will be met with firm instructions to chill the fuck out because it’s just a joke, man.
Wild that Wikipedia doesn’t have a page for The Red Pill beyond a couple brief mentions in other articles. I guess it’s not that surprising, really
Still not over the fact that these got canceled for being “racist” and “transphobic,” as though literally anyone was knitting hot pink hats with built-in cat ears thinking, “ah, the perfect shade with which to represent the color of the inner labia of some percentage of white cis women! I can’t wait to give one to my grandmother”
Not Like Other Girls; not commonly used as a term these days as most catty online feminists have moved on to “pick me” as their insult of choice for women who disagree with intersectional or radical feminism or like men too much. I'm taking it back. It's a compliment now.
…clearly inspired by my own “feminist” trajectory over the years
I did the same thing! It's a rough world out there for the NLOGs 😂
The only difference between the Christian feminist and the conservative feminist is that the Christian feminist is a virgin and probably unknowingly dating a closeted gay guy, while the conservative feminist has had penises/children in her vagina.