Does non-religious opposition to feminism exist? If so, why?

Question

Feminism holds that men and women should have equal rights (e.g. Feminism on Wikipedia).

Preachers in many religions may preach that men and women are fundamentally different, and even that men are superior to women. Followers of such religions may oppose feminism.

I can understand why people would differ widely in their views as to the means of achieving equal rights, as many policies or campaigns can backfire and have unintended side-effects. But is there any non-religious opposition against the aims of feminism? What is the nature of this opposition?

The Wikipedia article on Antifeminism is very limited.

Clarification: I am looking specifically for non-religious reasons cited by non-feminists describing why they oppose feminism.

Answer 1

If one agrees that feminism is adequately described by the statement "Feminism holds that men and women should have equal rights", then a majority of people in liberal democracies, including religious people, are feminists. According to this poll carried out in April 2013 in the United States by the Economist magazine and the polling organisation YouGov, 57% of respondents and 67% of female respondents would describe themselves as feminists when given a definition of feminism very similar to that.

However, the same poll states that only a minority - 28% of respondents and 38% of female respondents - answered yes when asked "Do you consider yourself to be a feminist, or not?" I have read of other polls in other developed countries that gave a slightly higher percentage describing themselves as feminist but still not a majority. I don't know enough about opinions in less developed countries to discuss them.

Clearly there are many people who do not accept that feminism is adequately defined by the objective of equal rights between the sexes, which they generally like; they feel that feminism also includes other aspects, which they dislike.

There is a sense in which feminism cannot be solely defined by its desired outcome, equal rights, which is shared by many other political philosophies which have no special focus on women. For it to be worthy of the name, feminism must have a special interest in women and an analysis that says injustices suffered by women because of their gender are sufficiently important to have a movement dedicated to ending them.

My impression is that much of the explicitly political non-religious opposition to feminism comes from those who for one reason or another dispute that the ending of gender-based injustice is an important political objective. They think not that feminism is wrong, but that it is a distraction.

Some left wingers see feminists as rich women complaining about not getting the very top levels of class privilege while remaining complacent in the face of much greater class-based injustice. Some black and ethnic minority activists make much the same diagnosis but with "white women" replacing "rich women" and "race-based injustice" replacing "class-based injustice". Another strand of opposition to feminism comes from those who believe that classifying people as men or women forces them into an over-simplistic picture of binary genders.

There is opposition to feminism that is based on a belief that the feminist movement has taken on repressive attitudes. In this article from the UK Guardian the radical feminist Julie Bindel worries that feminism is in danger of becoming "toxic".

There are also those who do not accept that in modern society gender-based injustice is suffered by women (or not entirely by them, in a softer version). For instance, they argue, a higher proportion of women than men go to university, women usually get custody of children in divorces, men generally die earlier, and much higher proportions of men do the most dirty and dangerous jobs. In addition there have been feminist-inspired moves for the watering down of the presumption of innocence and other legal protections for men accused of rape. For example this document from the group "Women Against Rape" urges that there should be no prosecutions for false allegations of rape, ever. Concern over this specific issue prompts much non-religious based opposition to feminism as it is seen by many.

Answer 2

I am a non-religious woman who is opposed to feminism because I am a stranger rape survivor. Feminists only recognize two groups of people it seems: us and them. This is because it is based in Marxist ideology but trust me - almost no feminist will admit to it, and most of them don't even UNDERSTAND the roots or CONTEXT from which feminism came. No matter - if you don't agree with them they assume you are some kind of religious bigot. (pot meet kettle)

Feminism has an ever expanding list of unattainable goals, and will not compromise them. Instead they beat people over the head with the metaphorical stick over petty inter-feminism squabbles like whether someone uses the word prostitute instead of "sex worker", and make a mockery of rape advocacy (see: Slutwalk: an "anti-rape" movement formed by two feminists, neither of whom have actually EVER BEEN RAPED, where rape victims are supposed to run around in public in their panties to "protest rape") facepalm

Yes, feminists are so very helpful to us raped people - they want to put us to put our flesh on display to the public to win points from their friends - how cute!

So anyhow, there is actually a lot of non-religious anti-feminism but the FACT that feminism has such an us against them mandate that they often think "anti-feminist" = religious/conservative/racist/mra. This is reductionist in the extreme. I am not an MRA, I am not conservative, I am not racist, and I am not religious, but I AM ANTI-FEMINIST.

I am against feminism because it is extremist ideology on par with religious fundamentalism, and because they ASS_U_ME that if you are against unequal treatment, racism or sexual assault that you also want to support their "pet" causes: BDSM, fat acceptance, polyamory, blogging about their vaginas, calling people who disagree with them bigots and generally being obnoxious, snotty little bitches all over the internet (source see - feministe.us, Amanda Marcotte, Renee the rampaging racist - sorry Womynist Musings, Jezebel.com etc.)

So yes, there are plenty of non-religious anti-feminists. However, the fact that the question is posed this way points to the main issue here. Feminists seem to often have a hard time believing that any women would not just jump on their bandwagon (women's right's yay!) instead of applying critical thinking and deciding whether or not their platform is legit. I think most women fall somewhere in between, but feminists rarely acknowledge criticism about their group from non-feminist women and often immediately assume they are right-wing or religious (because of course in their world there are ONLY TWO options feminist or bigot, you know).

For instance, they typically accuse me of being a religious conservative the minute I raise any sort of objection that their platform is political at it's core and NOT really about "women's rights". Most anti-feminist women I know (and I do know a few non-religious anti-feminists in real life) because they are rejecting feminism for its ignorance and iron fistedness - not because they are religious, conservative, or against women's rights. Also feminism does not equal women's rights. Feminism would not even exist without Marx - where do these ladies think this idea of "privilege" they love to beat each other over the head with online came from hmmmm?

At any rate, there are plenty of non-religious anti-feminists but they are rarely acknowledged. I for one, wish feminists would quit acting like it is their RIGHT to speak for ALL women and that if someone disagrees with them WHY THEY MUST BE A BIGOT. Pot meet kettle. Also, IMO they should stay the hell, out of rape advocacy. Just because someone is a victim of a violent crime doesn't mean they have a right to exploit them.

I swear it's like having your wallet stolen and then finding out that the victim's advocacy group called "Help for Victims of Pickpocketing" is most concerned with "fat acceptance" and "liberation for sex workers" and that unless you support their fringe causes they will label you a bigot. Just because I was raped doesn't mean I have to care about feminism or it's dumb causes, and I really wish they would quit acting like rape victims should appreciate that they blog about rape all the time (never mind that they make advertising dollars off all those "rape clicks"). Ah, feminism - the most exploitative anti-exploitation movement ever!

Anyhow, I am anti-feminst, non-religious and pro-human rights and no that's not an oxymoron. Thanks.

Answer 3

For those of you looking for a shorter and more digestible answer:

Feminism is a somewhat vague term that can define any number of pro-women movements.

• Some movements indeed advocate for women to be equal under the law, but
  • One can make the case that there some ways in-which women cannot be equal under the law simply because some scenarios apply to women and not to men. Childbirth is the most obvious example of such a scenario.
  • This kind of feminism, however isn't a very controversial form of feminism

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• The more controversial movements, however Advocate for women to be treated equally in by private entities who aren't involved with the law. This includes issues such as employment practices and Political Correctness.
  
  • Anti-PC people are opposed to some of these issues
  • there are other people who believe that such issues ought to be outside the scope of law.

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• And then there are other movements that go beyond, and advocate for Women to have extra rights. These movements tend to be somewhat fringe, but not super-fringe.

Answer 4

Yes there is a great deal of non religious opposition to feminism. All of which utterly reject the idea that feminism seeks equality, as do the vast majority of respondents in the wider public.

Broadly speaking these groups fall in three categories.

1. Red Pill philosophy, which is fairly overarching
2. Men Going Their Own Way or MGTOW which both advocates and advises men to not live with or marry women, but not necessarily be celibate.

3. Men's Rights Movement or individual MRAs who seek equality in the areas where feminists discriminate against men.

   Roughly speaking MRAs seek to change the system and MGTOWs seek to leave the system.

   As to your clarification of why they oppose feminism it is due to feminist policies and priorities which deliberately seek to disadvantage men and families more generally, are utterly graceless by nature and oppose MRAs when legitimately seeking equal rights.

   An excellent documentary of the MRM is available called, "The Red Pill" by Cassie Jaye (2016).