I identified as a liberal feminist for five years.

I started when I was 16, had my first boyfriend, and went down an online rabbit hole because I thought I was asexual (really I was bisexual with a history of sexual trauma and also generally just not ready for sex).

I frequented Tumblr often and liberal feminist thought was the first opinionated content I found that appealed to my young brain. I also followed a lot of asexual content and "tucute" opinions were strongly central to both of these things.

Five years later a "terf" slipped through my block list radar and I somehow followed her. She posted a mundane shitpost about the inanity of gender identity and I felt my psychological world become literally flipped upside down.

For three days I remember walking around the house stumped and with a pit in my stomach realizing exactly how bad womankind has it and understanding women's oppression for the first time.

I swung too hard in the other direction and tried to life a life of ideological purity as a "rudefem" radfem. I was angry constantly.

Then I came across r/GenderCritical when it had 3k subscribers and an entirely different climate. They helped me even out and become more analytical about things.

Now here I am!