Ah the age old question, is feminism a religion? If one were to take the first couple paragraphs of wikipedia’s definition of religion and then stop reading, as one is wont to do, then one could pretty easily make that argument to oneself. But it is clear to me that there are still a few essential elements of organized religions that are missing from modern day feminism.

TRIGGER WARNING : GETTING SPRAYED WITH SPERM

There is no sacred scripture, for starters. While there are numerous volumes of work on the subject, and it would probably be fair to compare many of those authors to “prophets”, there is no holy book, in fact there is nothing really sacred to feminists, except maybe the sanctity of the female body.

Feminism is also lacking in sacred rituals since bra burning went out of fashion. And while it could be said that The Patriarchy represents a form of higher power, there is no ritualistic communication with that power, ie prayer. Until feminism has these things I don’t think it will be fair to call it a religion.

The reason feminism is always being compared to religion is because the two types of institutions do share many traits and because certain religious traits have become much more pronounced in modern day feminism, such as the requirement to accept certain teachings on blind faith combined with an implicit imperative to not question said faith.

Everyone asking for my head: It is more important for society to believe women and sex workers than it is for me to defend one friend. —

Gaby Dunn (@gabydunn) November 29, 2015

One way we have been seeing this is in the discussion of the story of serial sex abuser James Deen. The fact that Stoya’s outing over twitter was a “success” can really only serve to reinforce this rhetoric of “listen and believe”. Listen and believe is not a position based on reason. It is a position of faith, pure and simple. As easy as it is to believe Stoya at this point, that doesn’t mean the next person to cry rape on twitter will be telling the truth.

I believe Stoya. I believe Stoya unconditionally. —

Another Angry Woman (@stavvers) November 29, 2015

Oh I know, I know, I’m such a clueless piece of shit. But the truth is women lie more often then men do. Ya, suck on that. Suck on the sweet, salty taste of freshly baked science. Because you know who else likes to ignore science and follow their feelings? Practitioners of faith, that’s who. Women may be twice as likely to lie as men . It happens every day.

I’m not judging Stoya for throwing out an accusation over Twitter rather than going to the police. We should always have sympathy for victims, but we can do that while also keeping in mind that this is not the encouraged way to handle these things…

Who should @stoya have talked to about her sexual assault? —

Princess SLAYA (@Save_Slave_Leia) November 29, 2015

The implicit imperative becomes clear once all the essential rules of feminism are layed out.

Rule #1 No Mansplaining

Lots of the notions of feminism are inherently hypocritical, and mansplaining is one such. You can’t pretend to be inclusive while at the same time wanting to just dictate to half the population. Feminists need to drop the concept of mansplaining and start acting actually inclusive if they want to salvage this dumpster fire of a movement.

Rule #2 No Criticizing, Full stop

If you look around the internet, you can find a lot of articles and blogs and videos about the end of choice feminism. Which is always explained in totally rambling and incoherent ways, but more or less adds up to the notion that women aren’t free to choose and therefore their choices can’t truly be criticized. How can you criticize she who is not accountable? Even if she does chose wrong it’s only because she couldn’t overcome her internalized misogyny.

RULE #3 Indoctrinate

Fitzroy high school feminists launch nationally accredited subject on gender equality

RULE #4 Indoctrinate

Top 10 High School Feminist Teaching Moments of 2014

RULE #5 Indoctrinate

Feminists Run The Schools – Teach Anti-Male Hate

(there was this video of a little girl saying smash the patriarchy over and over, I think it was in an Internet Aristocrat video or something, I forget, if anyone has that video please link me)

Rule #6 When you gotta, Castigate

So if feminism isn’t a religion then just what is it? Well that’s easy, feminism is a collectivist, supremacist ideology parading as equality.