Choice Feminism Fails Women in a Patriarchal System

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Calling everything a "choice" is the easiest way to ignore oppression.

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Choice feminism is basically the idea that as long as a woman chooses something, it’s automatically considered feminist.

Want to wear makeup? Feminist. Want to stay at home and cook? Feminist. On the surface, this seems empowering, "Do what you want, girl!" It sounds liberating, doesn't it?

But here’s the problem, choice feminism ignores the real world that women actually inhabit.

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Choices aren't made in a vacuum. Choices are always influenced by material conditions, social expectations, power relations, and survival needs. If your "choice" is influenced by pressure, social norms, or survival under patriarchy, is it really liberation? Or just a way to survive?

In a patriarchal system, most women’s choices are already limited. From birth, society teaches women how to behave, how to dress, how to speak, how to love, and even what kind of dreams are considered appropriate. Women learn from an early age that deviating from these rules can result in consequences, such as social exclusion, moral condemnation, employment discrimination, violence, or loss of security. When the cost of non-compliance is so high, calling compliance a free choice is misleading.

So, when someone says, "She chose it, so it's feminist," they're ignoring the fact that power imbalances determine what choices are even available. Not all options are equally accessible, and not all choices are made under the same conditions. Automatically assuming every decision to be feminist erases structural inequality and reduces feminism to individual preference rather than collective liberation.

Choice feminism also frees those who benefit from patriarchy from responsibility. Governments don’t need to change laws. Corporations don’t need to stop exploiting women’s labour and bodies. Media outlets don’t need to stop promoting harmful beauty standards. Men don’t need to question their power or behaviour. Everything is turned into a woman’s personal choice, even when that choice exists within a system designed to harm her.

That's why a woman's personal decision can feel personally empowering, but still change nothing about the larger structures that oppress millions of other women. Feeling empowered is not the same as feeling liberated. Feminism must not stop at personal comfort while the system itself remains intact.

Feminism cannot be reduced to personal freedom, it's a political movement that aims to dismantle the systems that restrict that freedom.

This means changing laws, norms, the economy and power relations so that women are no longer forced to survive at the expense of their dignity.