The reluctant feminist

So what's feminism all about? God knows! There are various types but I can't see feminism being prominent, in fact I believe there's been a backlash which has not brought about a new direction, only negative reactions, especially from women wanting to be 'women', which for them equates to making babies and baking. Am I being dismissive? I hope so!
I don't generally call myself a feminist and when I do I feel no pride, no self-confidence, rather a melancholic and powerless feeling. I call myself a feminist when I hear people talking about the essential differences between men and women, the ‘natural’, biological or genetic characteristics of male and female. Most of these differences are in their heads and that’s the problem. Joe’s post on women’s social fear of men is quite insightful. If I were a man I wouldn’t want to be feared, if I were a man I would like to be with a human being, equal to me, not a ‘woman’ identified with a set of ‘natural’ characteristics. I often hear men saying that they cannot understand how some men can ‘hate’ women and that they ‘love’ women. That’s the perfect example of misogyny. It starts by categorising a gender and objectifying it. You stop being a human being and become a woman, whose essence has been shaped and decided by a male society (and a male society’s interpretation of genes). The problem is that misogyny has been around for a very long time and we have internalised it. It is not just hatred and often it’s expressed in its ‘benign’ form such as stereotypes that, however, ‘disable’ women. Men are still the ‘I’, the ‘Self’ and women the ‘Other’, the ‘Second Sex’.
Women’s bodies still belong to society: from what they should wear, how they should look, how they should give birth (regardless of the woman’s choice or safety), how many months they should breastfeed etc. We live in a society that has a seriously unhealthy relationship with the body, where being ‘fat’ (or not skinny) is the ultimate sin. And the body is still primarily that of women.
Nevertheless, feminism for me is partnership. It’s about recognising men and women as human beings and going beyond societal structures and ideology. It’s about going beyond our fears and desires, it’s about belonging to the same oneness.