How Modern Feminism Became Cringe

It’s the end of an era for women’s media. The feminist brand had its moment in the spotlight, but if you’re following the trends, you’ve probably noticed how digital feminism is on the decline. The latest victim in this vicious take-down is Anna Holmes’s progressive feminist rag Jezebel, which is shutting down after running for over 16 years. Apparently, it’s getting resurrected by Atlanta-based Paste Magazine, but we’ll see how long that could last.

One thing is abundantly clear: Feminism as we know it is simply not marketable anymore. Post-sexual revolution, independent media and legacy media joined forces, working double-time to deconstruct gender roles and rewrite logic right before our eyes. Jezebel’s demise – a publication that once brought in solid revenue publishing vitriolic takes on women’s empowerment – signals just how styleless it is to shout about smashing the patriarchy. And they’re not the only ones.

Marie Claire, Teen Vogue, Seventeen, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan took deep cuts to their print circulations a few years ago, which shouldn’t be too much of a shock considering you can’t tear people away from their digital devices to instead read articles or books on actual, physical paper anymore. Then this year, Bustle Digital Group (owner of Bustle, Nylon, and more) and Hearst Magazines (parent company of brands like Elle, Seventeen, Cosmo, Harper’s Bazaar, and more) laid off a hefty volume of editorial employees. Online feminist outlets are shuttering at shocking speeds, from bigger publications like Bitch Media and The Lily, which were discontinued last year, to many smaller blogs and publications that recently went defunct.

When we watch typical women’s publications as we have come to know them fade into irrelevance, we’re observing just one symptom of the festering disease, which may indeed be terminal, ultimately leading to the demise of the feminist movement. It’s not really much of a hot take anymore to say that feminism is cringe. It’s simply fact. You’d think that as more women wake up and admit exhaustion over the media working double-time to deconstruct gender roles and thrust us into lifestyles entirely incompatible with our nature that the establishment would catch on…and yet, they haven’t. Some people clearly haven’t gotten the memo.

Somehow, Pantsuit Girlbossing Still Exists in the Current Year

Presidential candidate and former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley appeared on the Ruthless Podcast in mid-November to share her proposed platform if elected president, describe her thoughts on the political landscape du jour, and explain how she elevated herself to the national stage. 

Haley, running in the Republican primary, has had a unique opportunity to rewrite the narrative for female politicians and move us past Hillary Clinton-style pantsuit girlbossing. Alas, it seems unlikely that the top female conservative candidate will divorce herself from Clinton’s game of constantly playing the woman card. 

“And I’m not saying anything,” Haley says with her hands up in a faux-surrender stance while chatting about fellow candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, “but he might have a girl problem.”

This comment from Haley came a couple of weeks after she called Ramaswamy “scum” on live television during a GOP primary debate for pointing out how Haley supports a TikTok ban but hadn’t restricted her own daughter (who is in her mid-20s, by the way) from using the app. Nothing has even stopped politicians from blaming the parents for their adult children’s behavior. Just look at the critiques both Trump and Biden have received over their own kids’ choices. But Haley has the “advantage” of being able to dodge this judgment by playing the “I’m a woman” card and saying her critics have “a girl problem.”

Time after time, women weaponize these feminist tactics by acting inconsistently or engaging in denial behaviors like refusing to accept responsibility. Clinton herself basically wrote the guidebook on the latter in her 2016 election post-mortem book What Happened by regularly pulling the woman card. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if these same gals could at least outwardly admit crucial differences between the sexes, but their out-of-date rhetoric just screams Rosie the Riveter. 

Look, I’m sure that many may not even realize they’re doing it and so I can’t fully fault women for operating under a system they were raised into. But, we could do a better job at pointing out the cringe and being more objective about cognitive dissonance. 

Thank Goodness for the Sexual Revolution, Am I Right?

“Being a feminist is doing whatever you want to do and not being bashed by society for that,” said one female guest on the Whatever podcast. On the show, host Brian Atlas invites a panel of Instagram models, e-girls, college gals, and trad women to participate in roundtable discussions that often gets clipped as viral “roasts” to be circulated around the internet. Especially among the OnlyFans models or ladies plucked straight from their college campuses, you’ll hear amateurish takes on divisive discourse like whether men or women are the more oppressed sex or how a guy should treat a woman on the first date.

Perhaps the ultimate goal for Atlas’s podcast is to point out hypocrisy in post-sexual revolution America, but it’s marketed to the public as a “dating podcast.” In any case, there’s a distinct brand of feminism exposed on Whatever that doesn’t feel like women pushing for equality with men – it feels like an excuse for entitlement, for women to experience their sexuality freely and to wiggle their way out of any responsibilities.

If you look at any dating discourse, you’ll commonly see women listing off all of the duties that “real men” should do, from providing protection to fronting the cost for all bills. If we’re all about full equality of the sexes, however, then why is it that so many of them will then immediately go on defense the minute that a man rightfully suggests that they should be more nurturing?

While it’s perfectly fair for a woman to feel as though a man should be a provider and breadwinner, the model that modern feminism touts to balance the scales between the sexes instead elevates woman above man. In this effort to elevate and empower, the model of equality that many of these liberated ladies on the Whatever podcast proudly profess will instead disempower and oppress men. But it’s not just politicians or e-girls on their soapbox about dating trends. Modern feminism has a stranglehold over every element of life. 

Body-Positive Feminism Will Physically Harm the Female Population

According to pop singer Lizzo, watching Beyoncé wear the famous black leotard in her 2008 music video for “Single Ladies” instilled a political and feminist sense of confidence in her performances. This led Lizzo to proudly wear her now-infamous curve-hugging stage costumes. Whether she’s twerking or playing the flute (or doing both at the same time), Lizzo’s presence on stage sends a message without her even saying a word. 

Sure, some of her songs are genuinely about body positivity, like 2018’s “Fitness” where she sings about doing calisthenics despite having, as she puts it, “extra fat and rolls and a big butt,” but actions can speak so much louder than words. E News once called these one-piece costumes “bold” and “seriously sexy,” but if we’re to be fully honest with ourselves, she’s not the only female pop musician to wear stage outfits like this. From Taylor Swift to Dua Lipa to Katy Perry and more, it’s actually industry standard for mainstream female singers to wear glitzy onesies since they allow ease of movement. 

But since modern feminism is meant to push the envelope and subvert expectations, we can’t simply celebrate normal, healthy bodies anymore. We’re expected to artificially prop up people (like Lizzo) on a pedestal for being gutsy enough to shake sparkle-covered skin on stage and pretend like it’s not alarming that obesity and its host of related issues are rising at high rates. It’s all well and good to acknowledge that humans come in all shapes and sizes, but why does that have to come at the expense of our literal physical health? 

“While you might already know Ashley Graham and Tess Holliday, there are a host of stylish curve models that are changing the way clothes are portrayed,” writes Woman and Home contributor Mollie Quirk in an article aggregating 28 famous plus size models and how you the consumer can follow them. From body-positive swimwear line founder Brielle Anyea to the largest Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Hunter McGrady, Quirk points out how these women are “gaining huge social media followings” and “challenging narrow beauty standards along the way.”

Obese models are now the norm for glamorous editorial shoots, thanks to modern feminism, but from a normal consumer’s perspective, this societal shift feels like sly exploitation. Ladies like Lizzo aim to inspire confidence in other fat women to embrace their rolls and bear their skin. Let’s all rethink obese bodies as being no different from those within normal body fat ranges! How come these same editorial spreads that glamorize fat acceptance don’t also educate on the genuine harms that having a scary-high BMI can pose to women? 

Fat acceptance as a part of the modern feminist movement is cannibalistic – they insist we cheer women on as they live a lie, engaging in self-harm tactics we’d otherwise call out if it were any other vice, like alcoholism or drug addiction. 

Feminists want women to feel more comfortable subverting the male gaze in skimpy, tight apparel. They want men to be attracted to unhealthy bodies because it deconstructs the “oppressive” sex roles and allows them to rinse their hands of any responsibility for their uncontrolled, unhinged actions. 

But in the end, the cohort of women who embrace these lies are objectively worse off since they traded discipline and self-control for increased risk of diabetes and stroke, among other potentially fatal outcomes. Sorry but not sorry, wearing poor health as a badge of honor is cringe, and I can’t pretend otherwise!

Yesterday and Today, There Have Only Ever Been Two Sexes

Modern feminism thrives on puzzling contradictions. You’d think that a movement which derives its name from the word “female” would be able to define a woman, but in equalizing the sexes, we’ve also erased a collective understanding of our differences. This phenomenon is crystal clear in the forced acceptance of “T” within the “LGBTQ+” movement, or whatever it wants to call itself nowadays.

Sex is an undeniable, biological trait – even if there is a tiny fraction of people who have atypical reproductive organs, genitals, or chromosomal anomalies. If you’re born without all 10 fingers, or you lack all fully formed limbs, or perhaps you’re missing your tongue, that doesn’t mean that, scientifically, humans as a species don’t have 10 fingers, two arms and two legs, and a tongue. Feminism, a self-righteous movement, fights for the so-called underdog, which means denying scientific sex differences in gender discourse.

You would think that mainstream feminist voices would be appalled at males winning trophies that belong to females, being allowed in single-sex locker rooms to oogle and oggle at innocent teammates, or integrating into sorority sisterhood. I mean, is nothing sacred anymore? 

Since those feminists are so concerned with their own image and would rather watch opportunities be taken away or privacy and safety become encroached on, they literally handicap our whole sex.

This movement is regressive and, yes, it is incredibly cringe. For this year’s Miss Universe pageant, not only did we get a plus-sized contestant, but two “transgender women” (a.k.a. biological males identifying as women) also competed for the crown. It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that these two males, Rikkie Kollé (Miss Netherlands) and Marina Machete (Miss Portugal), were allowed into the competition after the Miss Universe Organization was purchased from IMG by a Thai “transgender” entrepreneur known as Anne Jakrajutatip last year. 

The state of womanhood can seem very disheartening when yet another element of femininity ends up on the chopping block thanks to diversity, equity, and inclusivity. Give me a break – people who support this stuff don’t actually care about women’s rights. The real “feminists” who do were part of past waves that feel entirely antithetical to the radical voices we see at its helm today. 

Closing Thoughts

Between behavioral inconsistencies and outright lies, the modern feminist movement is truly a lost cause. But if fewer women associate with it or endorse its many shortcomings, we could hypothetically boycott it into irrelevancy. 

Instead of supporting politicians who pass legislation that allows, for example, male prisoners to transfer into women’s prisons based on self-declared “gender identity,” we should be supporting politicians who are willing to codify sex differences into law like the Women’s Bill of Rights. As women, we should celebrate and cherish our differences from our male counterparts. To do otherwise is frankly embarrassing.

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