29 ways you might be an imperfect feminist in your twenties

1. You apologise for not having make-up on, as if your face au naturel is offensive.
2. You buy (or borrow) at least one feminist book a year, but does it ever get prioritised over that sugary ‘chick lit’ book about a woman having sex with her husband’s brother? Ahhhh, nah.
3. You still use the term ‘chick lit’ to describe books written by female authors.
4. If you’re single and straight, you’ll probably put ‘must be taller than me’ as the number one priority for a male partner. This makes very little sense, and reinforces the idea that women should be smaller than the dudes they date, but to hell with intellectualising this – you’ll be dead before you date a man shorter than you. DEAD.
5. You go on dates and bank on the man paying for you. If he doesn’t offer, you’ll be a little offended for the rest of the week.
6. Despite being on Bumble, you do not like messaging first. Why? Because it’s the man’s job to text first. If you think about how ridiculous that is for too long you’ll give yourself a headache.
7. A husband (or wife!) is no financial plan, but you can’t help thinking it would be . . . nice.
8. You still shave. Like, everywhere. You know that female body hair is no more unhygienic than male body hair but, well, you do it anyway.
9. You get a smug kick out of men thinking they actually need to open doors for you or wait for you to enter the office lift first.
10. You’re probably not that great at changing tyres. You’ve been taught to do it. You should know. You just, somehow . . . don’t.
11. You’ve dreamt about what your wedding will look like far more often than what your actual married life will.
12. You read the Daily Mail sidebar of shame on the way to work and perversely enjoy scrolling through the paparazzi photos of women ‘flaunting’ their ‘pert derrières’.
13. You fake orgasms because your desire to people-please outweighs the greater good.
14. Sometimes you catch yourself accidentally slut-shaming reality TV contestants.
15. And while we are on that, you spend too much time watching The Bachelor.
16. You’ve once found yourself in a debate passionately arguing that the Kardashians are ‘empowering’.
17. You have spent more than ten minutes editing an Instagram photo before.
18. You will almost definitely have a situationship with a closet misogynist and giggle awkwardly when he says female athletes ‘aren’t that good to watch anyway’.
19. Sorry, but if you’re like us, you probably hate reverse parallel-parking, too.
20. Sometimes you’ll joke that you do, in fact, hate all men.
21. You don’t ask for what you think you’re worth, because you’re worried about looking like a young, female greedy-guts.
22. You have, once before, blamed your very valid anger and emotion on having your period.
23. You have also, once before, referred to your period as ‘blow-job week’.
24. You spend more time being little spoon than big spoon.
25. If you see a spider you patiently wait for the closest man to sort it the fuck out.
26. You’ve already decided your children will take your partner’s surname because it’ll save you a loooooot of hassle in the long run.
27. You’re semi/kinda/maybe relying on someone else to figure out the whole ‘investing money’ thing for you.
28. You sing along to Eminem songs, even when the lyrics are actually kind of depraved.
29. Your feminism has, sometimes, been reserved for only those who look like you. And although you read this dot point with pangs of guilt, the better part of you knows that whatever you’re feeling right now doesn’t even scratch the surface of what Black, Indigenous, disabled and trans women experience every day. You know within your heart that if you truly want to become a better feminist you will need to stand up for all women. You also know you need to do the work to get there, and that that work is never truly done.