At a glance, equalism sounds like it should be a better alternative to feminism, since it promotes the ideas of the latter without placing one gender over another. It doesn’t.

Feminism is fraught with opposition, and some of this comes from people who do agree that men and women, regardless of race, should be considered equal. This is equalism in a nutshell – a subset of the umbrella-category of egalitarianism.

The term has been around since at least 2007 based on its presence in Urbandictionary.com, and it is generally discussed in terms of feminism. Our culture does not value femininity enough. It is suppressed, ridiculed, censored and even outright attacked.

By referring to one’s beliefs as “equalist” instead of “feminist,” you become complicit in censoring women and reducing the issue to a problem not unlike that of “All Lives Matter” rhetoric.

Of course all lives should be considered equal, across all spectrum’s of race, gender, etc., but that’s not the issue. Equalism dilutes the problem. Equalism erases the women-centric issues that feminism is trying to repair in society, and replaces it with a blanket statement.

“All lives are equal” is a fine idea, but let’s start by bringing women to a standard equal to that of men. Let’s start by defending people of color from the aggressions of institutionalized racism.

Equalism does neither of these.

Instead, it would give someone comfort in saying they believe in egalitarian ideals without receiving the stigma that surrounds those of feminism. Unless I just haven’t been looking hard enough, I don’t see many people holding equalism rallies and lobbying for equal rights without pointing to a specific demographic.

But, is that really surprising? Traditional wisdom says the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Equalism broadens the issue of unequal human rights to the point where there’s no clear avenue to tackle the problem. It loses all momentum and ends up carrying about as much weight as “world hunger is bad.”

If you’re mad that feminism focuses on women, you might need to ask yourself why that is.