Feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.

Misandry is the hatred of men and boys and is often associated with the belief that women are superior to men.

Feminism ≠ misandry. However, feminists who try to start a discussion about feminism are very often met with the response that they "must hate men," and that "men and women are already equal so you must be fighting for women's rights to be above men's rights," which is simply not true. Through further discussion it is possible to explain why feminism is not the extremist, angry, unreasonable movement it is often portrayed as in the media.

However, if anyone types "misandry definition" into Google it provides the definition "The hatred of men by women: 'her feminism is just poorly disguised misandry'". It is easy to see why this is extremely destructive to feminism.

Why does this matter?

Google is the most widely accessed search engine with over 900 million users per month. Google Dictionary provides definitions at the top of the search results page, in bold lettering, with no need to choose and click on a website. This means that it may be the most widely seen definition source on the internet.

If someone comes across the word misandry, wants to know what it means and types "misandry definition" into Google, they will see "her feminism is just poorly disguised misandry," and their assumptions about feminism will be validated by the authority that is Google. It does not matter that the sentence is only the example for the definition, what matters is that it is the only example, and it is a damning one.

Language, and being able to agree on the meaning of words is essential to communication. If we can no longer claim the word feminist without it being referenced to as "poorly disguised misogyny," then we have no word to define the advocacy of women's rights.

Please sign this petition to ask Google to change the example sentence so that we may start dispelling assumptions and stereotypes with authority and start talking about issues that are truly important.

Some suggestions for the replacement:

"She demonstrated her misandry by refusing to hire males."
"The misandrist cheered as the boy was being beaten up."
"Misandry is often associated with extreme feminism but does not correspond with feminist ideologies."