Without causing undue offence Hannah (I know unlike probably most on here, you are religious...and if it makes you feel better, so are my children) Feminism is a dogmatic ideology, and religion is too.
The relevance to this is precisely that if someone says that they are Feminist, what have they told you?
If someone tells you that they are religious, what have they told you?
You see the problem here. You know some of the general elements but have no idea what aspects of the ideology inform their life. Ar they nice or nasty? Are they righteous or humble? Are they happy to condemn those not like them or are they tolerant?
Personally I see both as poisonous ideologies and that both ideologies require an amount of ignoring or downplaying of many aspects of the ideology to get to a place where it is not harmful to both the individual or others the individual may interact with.
Many people who are Feminist think that by vouching their belief in this ideology "I am a Feminist", others will suddenly rise in expectation or raise their social standing. I ca only say that for me, it does rather the opposite. I am instantly on guard and suspicious (and in want of clarification).
The same with religious people. As I said my kids are religious. I even drop my daughter off to church. But her faith is a gentle sort of belief system. Not intolerant and not exclusionary, nor bigoted. Hers is not about Damnation or being inherently worthless or a righteous charge. Hers is uplifting, open and friendly.
The same applies to Feminism. If someone believes superficially in feminism as a want for men and women to be the equal, fine Or even as a want for men and women to be equal, AND a want to see all inroads into establishing equal rights, as NOT a natural effect of modernisation and more stable societies, but of women pushing back...Okay. That is fine. But the further you take this along the more pointed and exclusionary and bigoted and subject to very harmful interpretations.
Now I still think that believing in a God and miracles and so on, is quaint and a bit silly, but I understand my experience is not others. I do not begrudge my daughter or anyone else for believing in what they want BUT I sure as Hell do not think that religious belief or Feminist belief is something that ought to be seen as the moral high road nor that all Feminist belief or Religious belief ought to be accepted as decent, acceptable, rational, constructive and good for society.
We ought to, as a society got past the stage where people automatically give credence to someone because they are a Reverend or a Feminist Critic or whatever. People ought to be valued on what they think, not what title or job description they identify with.
