GeniesLoki

People have no idea what "socialism" or "fake news" mean, but no one tells me off for using those terms. But I feel like in this corner of Twitter people are sensitive to feminist terms, to the point they'd rather I not use them b/c they could be misunderstood. Is that accurate?

I don't mind you using them and often use them myself, but I can probably explain the dynamic a bit of why people might be a bit sensitive about them if you'd like?

Yeah that would be great!

First: I don't think "because they might be misunderstood" points at the problem well. I think there are much more specific negative associations people have with the use of feminist terminology.

Where the problem is lack of precision, I think it's not that people are worried about misunderstanding so much as that that lack of precision is deliberate. This is what people mean when they say motte and bailey: A narrow defensible usage and a broad implied usage.

The broad implied usage is one that I think has caused a lot of problems for some people, many of whom are in this corner of Twitter. It's not a great thing to be immersed in if you're a socially awkward man with a propensity to take things very seriously/literally.

At a personal level, I've *definitely* had a lot of emotional problems associated with internalising "men are bad" discourse, so I very much get why people are a bit sensitive to anything that seems a bit too much like that.

The other big problem is that, particularly on the internet, I think people (especially men, but in general) are used to a lot of feminism and SJ stuff being basically used to shut down discussion and argument. "You must agree with this or you're a bad person" rhetoric.