I Just Changed My Profile From Feminist to Pragmatist: Here’s Why

I’ve always been a practical person and also a very independent person. The older I get, the more I learn about who I most authentically am, the less I care about fitting in with anybody else’s rules or norms. What matters most to me is whether or not things work; whether or not they help people or contribute to my life.

I’ve been a feminist since the 4th grade when we were told in PE that there were different rules for boys and for girls in playing soccer. Girls (who presumably had budding breasts) were not allowed to use their chests to hit the ball, but the boys still could. Even at age 9, I thought it was outrageous and sexist and wrong. I complained to the powers that be, who naturally brushed me off, even when I showed up with my mother in tow, but in that moment, a feminist was born.

That was my first conscious brush with different rules and treatment for males and females, but it was hardly my last. I’m an avid reader and a history buff, so I had plenty of awareness from an early age of how some people (females, but also non-whites and poorer men) were treated differently by the white men who were in power; how their opportunities were curtailed and their vulnerability was perpetuated. I also had a plethora of my own experiences of being harassed, objectified, discounted, and marginalized by boys and men along the way. Even so, I mostly had good relationships with the guys in my life, but always really longed for a different kind of world.

I feel very fortunate that I spent most of my formative years in places with a lot of cultural diversity, and that helped to further develop my views about equality. Mostly I lived in places where white people were not the majority and people from different countries were always traipsing through our home, but I’m starting to digress.

Why would a life-long feminist who is still passionate about equality make the choice to move away from that term? Perhaps it’s because I’ve come to realize that the only Ism that actually matters to me is pragmatism and I’m ready to embrace that.

None of my values have changed and I’m not going to stop talking about topics that I feel are important. But I don’t need to identify with a specific movement to do so. I’m tired of arguing with men about what the term feminist means and stands for; I’m tired of having my thoughts and ideas prejudged (even more than they already are because I’m a woman) because I also come with a feminist label. But mostly, I really just want to pare things down to the essentials.

What I really care about is that all people have the opportunities to be who they really are and to have access to what their passions and skills allow for them to pursue, without artificial barriers. I’m interested in whatever helps the most people have the most benefit the greatest amount of the time and that doesn’t need any other name than pragmatist!