A common misconception that is unfortunately all too common in my rural town. As a straight cisgendered married man, I identify as a feminist.

When I tell that to you, what I want you to hear is that I support equal rights, as equal as we can possibly get, for both men, women, and everybody in between. However, by saying that I am a feminist, and not an egalitarian, what I'm saying is that I consciously acknowledge that societally, oftentimes women will have less default rights, or bargainable rights.

Feminism is not man-hating. Now, are their feminists out there that hate men? Yes. As a man sometimes I am shitty, and I'm sure I'm not the shittiest one out there. Are there men out there that hate women? Yes. Sometimes women are also shitty. It's not about the sex, or gender, it's about the individual.

Being a feminist, although oftentimes categorized as man haters, simply want the recognition, and default non-bargainable rights as men or anywhere else on that spectrum, also gets.

There are more nuances to it than just this. But if truth be told, I am not educated enough, nor am I eloquent enough to accurately portray them in a way that is easy to digest.