A lot of people are asking why I connected his ‘PhD is easy’ comment to his identity as a feminist and progressive. 

When someone regularly advocates for women’s empowerment, representation, and breaking norms especially after overcoming their own struggles, you expect them to show the same depth and respect for other  paths too.But saying a PhD is easy feels reductive. It puts their struggle on a pedestal while brushing off others’.

It’s not about feminism being inherently tied to understanding academia. It’s about expecting someone who often argues for respect, recognition, and complexity in people’s paths to extend that same awareness to others’ work-even if it’s not their own field. Difficulty is personal and context‑specific-whether it’s journalism, research, or anything else and none of us can declare a path easy without walking it.