By Becka Wall – @beckawall

The other night, my lovely friend (and co-creator of this zine!) and I went out to a bar. While we were chatting in a corner, a guy came bounding up to us.

“Hi! I’m Brian,” he said, extending his hand to us. “I’m introducing myself to as many people in this bar as I can.”

We had a friendly conversation with him for a minute, until his friend, Cody, who introduced himself rather loudly, joined in.

Lauren happened to mention we had just launched our magazine (which you are currently reading right now – HEYOH!) that day. When they asked what it was about, I responded, “It’s a feminist online zine, designed to empower women.”

Cody balked. He aggressively pulled me aside and started straight-up screaming in my face. Cody’s definition of feminism meant women who “hate men” and “think they deserve things they didn’t earn.” He thought that “humanism” was better than feminism and was offended when I dared to inform him he didn’t really know what the definition of humanism was.

Sound familiar? Then you might need this resource- a feminist dictionary to help deal with ignorant d-bags in bars!

Some Handy Terms:

Feminism: A person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes. Allow me to have Beyonce demonstrate: 

Seriously. It’s that simple. Want more? Check out Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk, “We Should All Be Feminists” (which Beyonce sampled that sentence from!).

Misandry: Misandry is defined as dislike of, contempt for or ingrained prejudice against men. It’s not the same as feminism, but it’s fun to joke about when having conversations with your fellow feminists.

Here are a couple of awesome misandry .gifs to use in your online feminist convos:

Humanism: An outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanism is great and all, but it isn’t an “alternative” to feminism.

Misogyny: Dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.

Mansplaining: When a man explains something to someone, typically a woman, in a condescending or patronizing way. Often times, what the man is explaining is something the other person knows more about or is more qualified to speak on.

Intersectionality: The interconnected nature of race, class and gender as they apply to a given individual or group. Intersectionality in feminism is vital to explore the overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. That’s why so many feminists are also active participants in the LGBT movement, actively advocate for immigration reform and support the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Cis-gender: Refers to a person whose self-identity conforms with the gender that corresponds to their biological sex; not transgender.

Trans-misogyny: The intersection of two forms of oppression that transgender women are subjected to: transphobia and misogyny.

 Meninism: A mockery of feminism that claims white men’s rights are being threatened.


Privilege: The special rights, advantages or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people. Some groups are more privileged than others, and will never fully experience the struggle of other minority groups.

The Wage Gap: Women overall earn 79 cents to every dollar men make overall. African-American women are paid only 64 cents, and Latinas only 56 cents, for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. The wage gap occurs at all education levels and only gets worse as women’s careers progress, according to the National Women’s Law Center.

Rape Culture: A culture in which dominant cultural ideologies, media images, social practices and societal institutions support and condone sexual abuse by normalizing, trivializing and eroticizing male violence against women and blaming victims for their own abuse.

Patriarchy: A system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it. WE LIVE IN IT, MAN.