i'm still not a feminist

dear anonymous -- i appreciate the gesture, because i assume you wanted to do something nice for me. thank you.

but...

i've never really thought that i was a person who cared specifically about "the plight of women everywhere". i think of myself as a person who has some empathy for the plight of living beings everywhere, in a sort of hare krishna sense, which doesn't go very deep -- i am sorry so many creatures are in pain, but since i can't do anything about it, i push it out of my mind rather than crusade for a million deserving causes. and women -- unless they're transgendered; that's a special case for me -- they're right in that same pot with everyone else. i don't speak up for them any more than i speak up for anyone. in fact i probably go out of my way to not let gender matter regarding whom i speak up for. i'm a member of amnesty international, not of NOW, see?

so i feel i am being praised for something i am not actually doing shit about, which feels ... undeserved. and i don't just want to accept the praise without pointing that out.