If you were on the internet for even a second on March 8, you probably know that it was International Women's Day. Everyone from celebrities to politicians to boring people like me took to social media to honor the holiday and post inspiring messages for women around the world. Literally everyone was doing it, including Bachelor contestant Danielle Lombard. For some reason, however, her post received an alarming amount of undeserved backlash, all because it used the word "feminism." Great.
"Women putting other women down is like telling the world that you are more worried about your 'competition' than your own progress," she captioned the photo, which was of a neon sign that reads "We Should All Be Feminists." "TAG a woman who lifts you up and supports you."
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Except that's not what people did. Instead, they saw the word "feminism" and decided to spew hate in the comments. There were all the usual blah blah about "When is international men's day?" (It's November 19, and also every other day), as well as brutal attacks against not just Lombard, but feminism in general.
"No we should NOT 'all be feminist!'" a commenter smashed on their keyboard. "Im SICK of this and stand strongly against it. Why is THIS the fkn message? Y'all need a new word. For real."
Another person wrote, "lol I don't like u anymore." Another called her "literally the worst girl on the show."
Now, why don't we go take a look at Bachelorette Andi Dorfman's International Women's Day post in which she's wearing a shirt that says "GRL POWER" but doesn't mention feminism...
"Who run the world?" she captioned the photo. "WE run this motha!!"
"NEEEEED THISSSSS SHIRTTTTT!" read the comments.
"I'd have no problem with that, I'll support u," one user says, while another tells her to "Enjoy your day Boo."
Sorry, what? Why are we over the moon about Andi Dorfman's GRL POWER but being openly feminist makes Danielle Lombard "literally the worst girl on the show"? Do people not realize that they're both spreading the same message? Dorman's GRL POWER is just a simplified (some would say too simplified) version of exactly what feminism is.
If you needed proof that people just have an irrational knee-jerk reaction to the word "feminism" without knowing what it stands for, this is unequivocally it.