There's a difference between feminist consciousness and adopting feminist vocabulary. I'm noticing how conversations about patriarchy, capitalism, oppression, and liberation are being repackaged into individualized wellness philosophies.
A few things worth considering:
1. Stop confusing personal liberation with collective liberation.
Being able to quit your job, slow down, take a sabbatical, reject conventional productivity, or prioritize your own needs is not universally accessible. Presenting those choices as feminist principles without acknowledging who has access to them is intellectually dishonest.
2. Stop using oppressed communities as rhetorical props.
There is a difference between supporting marginalized communities VS. using their struggles to validate your own beliefs or lifestyle choices. Speaking the language of social justice doesn't mean you understand what other communities actually experience. True solidarity starts with listening, learning, and recognizing that not every struggle is yours to speak for.
3. Recognize that privilege doesn't disappear because you've become politically aware.
Being a feminist doesn't automatically make someone socially conscious. Being a woman doesn't mean you experience patriarchy in the same way as every other woman. And being disadvantaged in one area of your life doesn't exempt you from holding privilege in another.
4. Stop turning structural problems into individual wellness assignments.
If the problem is exploitative labor conditions, economic inequality, inadequate healthcare, or the unequal distribution of caregiving, the solution cannot be telling women to rest more, regulate their nervous systems, set boundaries, and stop responding to urgency. That's not liberation. That's individual adaptation to systemic inequality.
5. Stop treating feminism as an aesthetic or personal brand.
Feminism isn't just the language we use, the books we read, the clothes we wear, or the wellness practices we adopt. It's a political commitment that requires us to examine systems of power, including the ways we personally benefit from them. If our feminism only challenges the structures that inconvenience us while leaving our own privilege unquestioned, we have some work to do.