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Banning “Feminist” in 2015?

This article originally appeared in Townhall.

If you could ban any word for 2015, what would it be? For Time magazine’s readers, the word “feminist” took a surprising early lead over “influencer,” “kale,” “literally,” “obvi,” and others, in the magazine’s annual poll to decide which term to scrub from the American lexicon. Facing a backlash and petition drive, the magazine eventually apologized presumably for offending women who consider themselves feminists.

Only 20 percent of Americans, including 23 percent of women, self-identify as feminists. Taking a look at some feminist efforts in 2014, it is no wonder that the term feminist provokes a negative reaction, and why so many women reject a term that was once synonymous with their empowerment.

Modern American feminism is becoming increasingly irrelevant because its causes and narrative don’t quite fit with the lived experience of American women. There is too much of a focus on getting attention no matter the means. And the underlying message often conveyed is that women are victims who can’t stand up for themselves. Welcome to feminism in America in 2014. Here are some lessons we learned from feminism gone wrong in America this year.

Banning Adjectives Isn’t the Way to Help Girls Succeed

Take the Ban Bossy campaign. In March, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO and author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, and Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of the Girl Scouts, partnered to launch a campaign to encourage girls to succeed. It’s safe to assume that these accomplished women are extremely adept at navigating workplace relationships. How do they want to help girls succeed? By starting a social movement to ban the use of the adjective “bossy.”

The way to succeed isn’t by banning every mean word tossed at girls—but by teaching girls how to overcome the challenges they will face as they climb the career ladder. While this effort garnered some headlines, it hasn’t turned into a popular movement. Instead, it sent an embarrassing message: Are women so weak that they can’t face the word bossy?

Teaching Little Girls to Use the F-word for Attention Isn’t Cool

While some feminists attempted to ban the word bossy in 2014, others used much more offensive language to try to make their point. Apparel company FCKH8 posted a video, “F-Bombs for Feminism,” featuring young girls dressed as princesses in full make-up using the f-word and gesturing with their middle fingers to try to bring attention to sexism. Adults appear toward the end to sell “This is what a feminist looks like” and “Girls just want to have fun-damental rights” t-shirts. The video ends with a young girl saying, “Swear jar? I don’t give a f**k.”

The video got attention—more than 1 million views on YouTube. It also elicited a backlash. Teaching little girls curse words isn’t true empowerment. With shock-value videos like this one claiming to be “feminist,” it’s no wonder so many mainstream women want to disassociate with the label.

Using Male Models to Get Women to Vote is Insulting

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