Here’s a tip, Time. When you say “I have nothing against feminism itself,” stop immediately afterward. Don’t add a “but” and then shove your foot into your mouth with a statement deliberately ignoring the wider context of the general resistance to feminist ideals which paint the movement as unnecessary (despite, for example, a recent wave of increasingly draconian restrictions on abortion access in the US), and its adherents as an entire list of things like “irrational,” “man-hating,” “unattractive,” and “attention seeking.” Ignoring the flack female celebrities get for openly calling themselves feminists, or the reactions women get for openly admitting to being feminists in online space.

Yes. Let’s stick to the issues. A woman’s right to choose. The vast gender gap in STEM fields, academia, corporate leadership, and government. Sexual harassment, whether it’s a woman walking home from the bus stop or a Oscar Award winning actress whose private photos were stolen and released online. The stigma on low-income single mothers. The pay gap. The ERA. Access to childcare, birth control, comprehensive sex education, and that’s leaving entirely aside the issues of the depiction of women in our media or the concentrated campaign to expel women from the video games community by the use of threats of death, rape, personal harm, and the invasion of their privacy.

So thanks, Time, for suggesting we get rid of the name of the movement that helped women gain the right to vote, own property, and initiate divorces. Political and philosophical movements don’t trend because they’re popular, Time. They trend because they’re necessary.

 Time Magazine Asks “Is Feminist the Worst Word of 2014?” in New Poll. We Have an Answer For Them. | The Mary Sue