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Feminists today are highly concerned with language and its implications. Here at Everyday Feminism, we advise respectful discourse with the aim to uplift and educate one another. We’re aiming to improve your day-to-day lives. But if I’m going to be human and imperfect and slip up every once in a while, I’d at least like to do it in a quasi-feminist way.

Feminism addresses many specific issues, two of which are street harassment and a woman’s right to take up space in the world. But what do these two issues have in common? Check out this week’s video headline to find out! Watch Jessian Choy describe her experience with presenting herself as powerful and how it effectively worked to stop a particularly aggressive street harasser.

I recently wrote a piece on my personal blog that highlighted seven men who are transforming masculinity, and I was blown away by how well it resonated. In reflecting on the post, I realized that it was so popular because it touched on an unfilled need. We need to talk about what a more inclusive masculinity could actually look like beyond “Real men cry, too.”

We are taught from a young age how to recognize abusive romantic relationships. But friendships as vehicles for abuse almost never cross our cultural radar. It might be time to take a step back and reevaluate whether it’s time to break up.

When this woman looked at other women’s accomplishments, she felt worse about herself and criticizing them was her defense mechanism. Here’s why, and how, we can support rather than lament the success of other women.

Telling the truth is hard. There’s social pressure to see things in certain ways and to tell certain premeditated status-quo enabling truths. Society coerces us into telling a narrative that doesn’t reflect the truths that we know, but rather the truths that society so desperately wants us to believe. But we can do better for ourselves – and for others.

If you’ve been (or are) closeted, you’re already aware that it’s not that fun. But there are things that can ease the burden.

Letting yourself be as you are is hard, but it’s also possible. Here are some techniques to help you through.

Sometimes – well, most times – there’s pain in a relationship. And sometimes, things can become so fragile and hard to navigate that irreparable cracks surface, and the relationship becomes broken. And I’ve been there. Far too many times. Learning, growing, and working hard to understand why brokenness breaks you – and what to do about it – is a journey. But it’s one worth taking.

As a woman, you may feel like the world is flooding your mental inbox with constant messages of how to think, feel, and behave. And as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, it may seem as though everyone feels entitled to comment on your “lifestyle” as well. People have some rigid ideas of how both women and gay people should go about their lives. You don’t have to listen to a word of them.

Nobody wants to be a quitter. It’s a concept ingrained into the fabric of our social being. But what if my work environment is making me irritable, anxious, and unhealthy? Is it “wrong” to quit then? In some contexts, quitting is actually the best option. Leaving can be the end of something, sure. But it can also be the beginning of something else.

I wanted to love, I just didn’t know how. I looked at love and saw pain, loss, jealousy, and rejection. Love was stressful. At times, I would love too much. Then too little. Then not at all. For the past couple of years, I’ve been learning how to love and the barriers to bash through to do so. If you find yourself in a similar position, here are some tips to get you started.

In our society, the child-father relationship is given more attention and revered. Consequently, when a mother-child relationship is damaged, adult children tend to cover-up and internalize the loss. So why is it important to foster positive relationships between daughters and mothers? And where do daughters begin to repair poor relationships with their mothers?

There are three parties in a relationship: you, your partner, and the relationship itself. You have to take care of yourself first and make sure you are truly happy in order to flourish with a partner. Relationships ought to bring benefit to you. Here are some ways to make sure you take responsibility for maintaining yourself and your relationship.

You’ve been taught, over and over again, that people’s opinions of you matter. You’ve been taught that if someone thinks you’re too fat, or too loud, or too smart, or too dumb, or too whatever, or not enough whatever, that they get to have a say in how you feel about yourself. But today I’d like to introduce you to the deep spiritual practice of not giving a shit.

When I hear people discussing the Stay-at-Home Mom/Work-Out-of-Home Mom dichotomy, I feel incredibly disjointed from the conversation. I divide up my priorities between paying the bills, quality learning, and loving time with my son and that is my self-actualization. For me, parenting as a feminist is doing what is best based on your values, regardless of adversity or public opinion.

High heels, short skirts, and bold lipstick might look amazing on some women, but those things make me feel vulnerable. Like I’m seeking attention. And for whatever reason, the idea of strangers acknowledging me in a sexual way when I feel like it seems like that’s what I want makes me genuinely uncomfortable. I just happen to feel sexiest in a pair of jeans and a plaid shirt.

Being happy in a relationship is nearly impossible if you feel unlovable. You’ll either ignore your needs and act from a place of keeping your partner happy rather than yourself or push your partner away in order to confirm your belief that you’re unlovable. But we all have flaws and being lovable doesn’t mean being perfect. So here are a few steps to help you believe that you are, indeed, lovable.

As a gay man, you have male privilege but being gay complicates that, making you seem less-than in many people’s eyes. Many bigots see you as being like a woman or wanting to be a woman, which some gay men will internalize as negative. Feminism looks at that thought and says, “What’s wrong with being a woman?” I needed to hear that message at 18, and I still need to hear it now.

We are products of a lifetime of gendered social messages that tell us that every woman needs a man – that to not have one, even for a moment, is a failure at womanhood. Aside from all the overt sexism, the idea that being single sucks is flat out WRONG. So here are a few ways that being single is good for you and a viable life choice if you want to.