Feminism: why am I supposed to worship women's feet again?

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Feminism is an attempt to level the playing field because, by nearly every possible measure, women are not treated as well as men in our society. Feminism is, succinctly put, "...the radical notion that women are people." So by your description, above, you're a feminist.

*my bold*

Not trying to be a dick, but I hate it when people do this. 

He may agree with "the radical notion that women are people" and have views similar with some feminists but shared ideals don't make him, or anyone for that matter, a feminist. It's kind of a conscientious decision to put yourself under that umbrella.

Oh I wasn't meaning to imply he actually considers women his equals, or is in any traditional sense a feminist. I was simply pointing out that his basic position was a statement of actual feminism, after which he proceeds to build a straw-man (or woman, I suppose?) based out of the most radical versions he could find to point to...

...which is, ironically, exactly what he complains about when people do to Muslims.

I spend a shockingly huge part of my (limited) time on Facebook, arguing with conservative friends about why they can't point to radical examples of violent Islam, such as bombs exploding in crowds, and then say "Well Muslims do thus...".

For a person like Atlas to see it so clearly in his own religion, but then make the identical mistake with regard to feminists, is sad-yet-hilarious. Generalizing from the most radical examples you can find is a straw-man argument. I have read much of the literature to which he points, and I can agree that many are more radical than I can support in any way-- but the average feminist, just like the average Muslim, is nothing like what the bigots depict.

In other words, it was my way of shocking him into realizing what he was doing. (After all, he is closer to the average feminist than the straw-men he's describing.) Apparently, I failed. It was very late.