I understand your critique of a gendered term and that there are huge issues surrounding gender equality. In this case, I was responding to someone who specifically stated that she "wasn't a feminist" (in bold) in a post talking about women in the tech industry and thought the term "feminist" would be appropriate in my response for her.
There is much intersectionality of other gender equality, race, class, and social issues. I'm a woman in tech. I wrote about feminism specifically because it's something that I feel needs specific attention and it's relevant to me. I was also directly responding to someone who was saying she wasn't a feminist. She's actually making a positive assertion, disguised as a negation. So actually in your example:
Imagine the same thing with the term "white supremacy" and a complaint about how the racists are ruining the term
It would actually be "white supremacy" and a complaint about the people who say they're not white supremacists.
I believe in equality. I'm a feminist, gender-equalist, LGBTQ ally. All those issues have issues specific to them, and a lot of them have issues that intersect.
My post is a woman speaking to another woman about being a woman in tech--to unite each other. The term feminist is perfectly acceptable.
If you want to start a fight about terms, go elsewhere.
I am a woman in tech and I am not a feminist, and it is offensive to me that you blame me for how you were treated
You wrote an article about people calling themselves "feminists" and about what the term means. Neither of us started this fight, but your article is entirely about an existing fight over a term.
No, I wrote a response to a specific woman about her use of the phrase "I'm not a feminist" in an article about women in the technology industry that got a lot of attention. This response/post is about my experience in the tech industry, my work, and how the use of the phrase "not a feminist" impacts my work. I'm using a gendered term because I'm addressing a gendered issue. I'm speaking about my experience as a woman to another woman. I think this is very different than the difference between saying you're a gender equalist and a feminist.
As you say, what triggered your response was the use of the phrase "I'm not a feminist" from someone who, by all accounts, seems to fully support gender equality. The issue is whether "feminist" and "feminism" means gender equality or something else.
Perhaps my use of the term "entirely" is unfair. But certainly this was a major point of your article.
You can insist on the term "feminist" or "feminism", but you will alienate people who could be your allies in a fight for gender equality. You would be insisting on a gendered term to represent the fight for gender equality. There are some people, both men and women, who cannot accept that and so long as neither side gives in, the common cause will not advance.