I answer questions that are burning your bras and run this column as a makeshift guide to the feminist way of life.

I know you say that feminism is not a fight between genders but between philosophies—of patriarchy vs equality. I'd like some more counterpoints against the 'feminism=misandry' stand. We often get into arguments about this in college, and I want to shut that shit down.

“The image of male-bashing feminists has been popularised to an extent that we heard a budding teenage feminist assure boys in the room, ‘I am not a feminazi!’ (We’ll get into the problematic etymology another day.) It shouldn’t be a surprise that, in a patriarchal setup traversing different degrees of sociocultural deprivation, the ethos of the feminist movement is grossly misinterpreted. After all, it has always been easy to discredit anything women do as disproportionate the instant they humanise the stories of their oppression. Even though we struggle on days to get through the daily quota of violation we DIDN’T ask for without hating on one guilty man at a time, the movement is about forming allies, and any form of misandry under the guise of feminism is a loophole that we strive to recognise and discourage collectively.”

This column appeared on Pass the Mic, the blog of Why Indian Men Rape.