Upon visiting the page @feminist page on Instagram, after initially being struck by their impressive following of 6.5 million, you might then be both inspired and moved by their posts promoting gender and racial equality, women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, and their pleas for social change. They promote messages like ‘My clothing is not an invitation,’ and ‘A woman without a child is no less of a woman.’ So, this page is a platform on which women can feel supported, safe, and empowered, right? Wrong.

According to another Instagram account, @active_feminists, the account is run by two white businessmen, Jacob Castaldi and Tanner Sweitzer, founder and director of sustainable clothing company CHNGE, and they have reportedly created and managed a network of over 10,000,000 Instagram followers. According to @active_feminists, these men ‘do not give a single fuck’ about feminism, and they merely appropriate the stuffering of marginalised groups, such as women or the black people, in order to discreetly market their own brand. @active_feminists ended their post stating that ‘Men should be Feminists but a movement for the liberation of women, PoC, queer and trans folx should be led by women, poc, queer and trans folx.’ This exposé has since received 8,500 likes and hundreds of comments declaring their support for those who have taken issue with the account, either with its content or the ethics of who is running it and what their motivations behind it are. All of this opens a greater dialogue surrounding feminism on social media. Is there a ‘right’ way to be a feminist online? Do only certain people have the right to speak about certain issues? And is using a social movement such a feminism to push a private business something to be condemned? Or, could it potentially allow feminist messages to reach a wider audience and therefore give some benefit to activist movements?

In my opinion, any efforts that someone is making to draw attention to social issues, from gender discrimination and sexism, to racism, xenophobia and homophobia (and many more) should be recognised as positive, in some way. Social change only happens when enough people are talking about an issue, and are educated about an issue, to care enough to fight for it, and social media is obviously a great way to raise this awareness. I also think that sometimes people can be put off publicly commenting or supporting an issue, when doing so would make a positive impact, because they are so concerned about the backlash they might get if they get it slightly wrong – for example, using slightly the wrong vocabulary, suggesting a source that other people might not support, or being told that their actions aren’t enough and they should be doing more. This can make people feel very anxious and self-conscious about expressing support for a cause, when in reality they have good intentions and just want to contribute to positive change, and it can make certain activist movements feel very exclusive, obviously having a negative effect, and also meaning that less people are talking about important issues. However, I would also emphasise that any activism that makes someone else feel belittled or exploited, in any way, is obviously problematic, and I think there is a clear problem with the idea that the struggles of real people are becoming commercialised and used as advertising for financial gain. The issue here is that to be an activist you must truly care about your cause – you don’t have to be a woman to fight for women’s rights, but you should truly care about the struggles that women face. And the concern about the page @feminists, is that quite simply, they care about their bank accounts more than women.

Other men have also been accused of simlarly using the label of ‘feminist’, not out of concern about gender inequality, but as a way to benefit themselves. In an article entitled ‘The Problem with Male Feminists,’ published on Aljazeera in 2018, Megan Murphy wrote about how sometimes, men will claim the title of ‘feminist,’ simply because it is an easy and effective way to gain praise and a positive reputation (or in the case of Castaldi and Sweitzer, financial gain), despite the fact that this label actually contradicts their personal and political actions. She explains how we have become so accustomed to gender power imbalance, that situations which for women may actually be intimidating, upsetting and even harmful, are sometimes ‘romanticised’, and mean that men seem to be able to, in their own heads at least, excuse behaviour that is, without a doubt, anti-feminist. Whilst her claims that ‘most men’ have engaged in behaviour that was ‘inappropriate’ or ‘even abusive’ may seem outrageous and overly cynical without proof, her point that misogyny is a ‘social problem, not a personal one’ may explain why some people feel that whilst men absolutely can and should be real feminists, they should be careful not to exploit the true aims behind the movement, as a way to further their own personal agendas. Especially given the fact that men will simply never understand how it feels to be a woman growing up in a world with a history of centuries of systemic female oppression.

The account @feminists has also received criticism from writer Cecilia Nguyen, not only for the fact that it profits off of other, uncredited, artists and creators, but because the account itself does the ‘absolute bare minimum’ for the feminist movement.  She states that their feminism is ‘shallow, trivial and hardly intersectional’,  especially given that so much of their content is images about women’s appearance posted without captions, rather than drawing attention to other issues women also face globally, from FGM, femicide and maternal mortality. Nguyen criticises the account for its performative activism, total lack of transparency, and capitalisation of the feminist (among other) movements, and she ends by stating that there are in fact thousands of other accounts doing the same. I would be inclined to agree that it seems extremely reductionist, and in some ways adding to the problem they are claiming to be against, to seem to be suggesting that the biggest problem women face is how their bodies are viewed. Yes, it is one of the problems, but it seems to show a complete lack of understanding about the wider problem, and therefore lack of effort to understand it, to not also be creating a dialogue around the gender pay gap, or number of female CEOs compared to male, or the fact that in some countries girls are still fighting just for the right to be educated.

However, she does acknowledge that the account is a good starting point for those beginning to explore feminism on social media (provided you know the truth behind the account). Furthermore, she draws attention to the fact that 50% of the profits from their company CNGE go to charity, and they have undoubtedly generated a lot of awareness around the feminist movement. When considering this perspective, it is clearly incorrect to state that the account has no positive impact. Furthermore, in an article on The Conversation about how women are fighting back against the commodification of feminism, Lauren McCarthy and Kate Grosser counter the argument that feminists have been ‘co-opted’ by business interests, by evidencing how women are actually co-opting business interests in gender equality to advance an explicitly feminist agenda, for example, by encouraging businesses to display their corporate social responsibility credentials. In fact, after being ‘exposed,’ the @feminist account have posted and open letter to their Instagram story promising that they will be recruiting a team to manage the account led by ‘Womxn, BIPoC, and LGBTQ+’ individuals, by January 31, thereby transforming their platform into one which gives a voice to those who have the appropriate experience to share content and educate others on issues of gender, race and sexuality. This will perhaps serve as an apology for some of the harm that they have caused, by giving greater exposure to the people who the movements that they promote are for, like when businesses actively work to increase their CRS.

For many people, the damage of hiding the truth has already been done, with people feeling that they have commercialised and trivialised movements that are the result of hundreds of years of struggle, repression, and harm. However, perhaps some positivity is yet to come from the platform when they are led by a new, diverse team, and there is no doubt that although the way they have done it is morally and ethically corrupt, @feminists has certainly drawn attention to the feminist movement, and contributed some good to non-profit organisations. Nonetheless, if you’re going to be an activist, it is essential that you understand the true meaning and weight of the badge that you have claimed, and actively uphold the values of the movement and fight that you are promoting, both on social media, but also in your private and personal life. And it should never ever be used as a front to generate publicity that will be exploited for personal, financial gain.

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