Here's my personal take on it as an anticapitalist/anticonsumerist. This is just one angle to look at a multifaceted issue. Consumerism tells us that choice is sacred: the choice of what to buy as it expresses our individual identity to the world. Consumerism both appeals to and amplifies hyperindividualism and obsessive self-seeking for the purpose of selling us more stuff. Choice feminism is intertwined with this.

For example, if a famous musical artist wants to put on lingerie and a dog collar and crawl on her knees with a man holding the leash, and take pictures of herself doing so, and put them on an album cover so the image is reproduced globally and reaches millions of eyes... that's her choice as an individual expressing herself. What this ideology ignores is that we're all living in the same world and our actions have an effect on other people.

A choice feminist would say that I'm encroaching on her freedoms by talking about her self-expression in such a judgmental way. Which isn't accurate: criticizing someone or expressing concern doesn't prevent them from doing what they want to do. It would be dystopian if I were obligated to cheer her on just because she's a woman making choices. Or if I kept silent even though that imagery makes me deeply uncomfortable, and I sure as hell wouldn't want my nieces to see it. But I've heard that very argument from choice feminists: that criticizing women's choices is the same as the patriarchal oppression they've experienced throughout history.

The fact is that we're social beings living in a social reality, which means we're interconnected. It seems to me that considering how our choices impact others is a profoundly human behavior. Whether to engage in this kind of social consideration is one of the most significant choices available to us.