WhOo0oAaaHh It's The Wild World of Online Social Activism

The internet is a wild place that can literally consume all your time, your life, and the quality of your vision, not that I know from personal experience or anything....But the internet is also a place where niche or oppressed communities can come together to find support, share ideas, and express themselves. ALSO the internet is a super rad place where language is constantly changing, being created, and being re-appropriated.

A lot of people may be against identities and labels thinking that they are exclusionary or get too specific. However, we must ALWAYS give people the right to self-identify however they choose. This means that we must ALWAYS allow new identities and labels to be created by and for certain groups. If you are not a part of that group or identity, then you have no say as to whether their identity is legitimate or not.

So, as an internet junkie and flaming feminist with liberal and sapphic tendencies, I am married to the game of online social activism. Here are a few terms I've learned during my late night internet binges. This might not be the best place to start if you are a newly self identified feminist or social activist, but for those that are well versed or just want to learn more about underrepresented groups, I'd suggest exploring some of these terms further!

General Terms

TERF: Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist
SWERF: Sex Worker-Exclusionary Radical Feminist
MRA: Men's Rights Activist
SJW: Social Justice Warrior
MSWF: Mainstream White Feminist
Weaponized femininity: a form of feminism that turns misandry into an elaborate joke, especially online. The aesthetic is stereotypically feminine, i.e. glitter, hearts, pink, etc., but expresses a love for misandry and male tears.

Diarchy: refers to a society that operates on a system of a gender dichotomy that is based on mutuality.
Kyriarchy: moving away from just the patriarchy, this term refers to a system that keeps all intersecting oppressions in place, not just sexism. Coined by Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenze.
Mansplaining: when a man assumes he knows more on any given topic than a woman and proceeds to over explain it to her in extremely simplified terms.

Cis-splaining: refers to a cisgender individual over simplifying and talking down to individuals not within the gender binary. Often talks over trans individuals and derails conversations about the trans community to focus on cis privilege.
Whorephobia: a term often used to describe anti-porn and anti-sex worker feminists. These radical feminists are often against the female porn stars or sex workers because they consider them "whores" and not the actual industries themselves.

Sizeism: a form of oppression that discriminates against fat (which is a term now being re-appropriated by the community) individuals by viewing them as lazy, unhealthy, unattractive, fetishized, etc.
PUA: Pick Up Artist, generally refers to men that use degrading and sexually abusive techniques to "woo" women.
FPUA: Female Pick Up Artist, usually women don't use this label as an identifier for themselves, but these women help teach other women the art of seduction rather than listing things they shouldn't do when trying to attract a man.
negging: undermining a woman's self confidence so that she might be more vulnerable and receptive of a man's sexual advances.

Racism

Afrofuturism: a literary and aesthetic movement that blends Afrocentricity, science fiction, and the history of oppression of individuals of color by addressing concerns of the African Diaspora through a science fiction lens.
AAVE: African American Vernacular English
Misogynoir: a form of misogyny that specifically oppresses women of color, especially African American women. This is done by white males and females as well as, black men.

Ableism

Neurotypical: an individual that does not suffer from/has not been diagnosed or self diagnosed a mental or personality disorder.
Neurodivergent: an individual that does suffer from a mental or personality disorder. The concept of self diagnosing is becoming more accepted and supported in online communities.
Allistics: An individual who is not autistic. Often belittles or discredits individuals who self diagnose themselves with autism or Asperger syndrome.

Sexuality & Gender

Bihet: a bisexual in a heterosexual relationship.
Cishet: a term for a heterosexual cisgender individual.
Sapiosexual: a person who finds intelligence to be the most sexually attractive feature of a person.
Demisexual: a person who does not experience sexual attraction to another person until they have formed a emotional or romantic connection with them.
Cupiosexual: a person who desires a sexual relationship but feels no sexual attraction to anyone.
Skoliosexual: a person who experiences sexual attraction to non-binary identified individuals.
Ace: another way of saying asexual, which is a person who is not sexually attracted to others and/or doesn't desire sexual activity in or outside of a relationship.

Gray-Ace/Grace: someone that doesn't identify as sexual or asexual but somewhere inbetween.
Aro: another way of saying aromantic, which is a person who is not romantically attracted to others.
Allo Ace: a term in the ace/asexual community to describe someone who is non-asexual.
Aro Ace: a combination of aromantic and asexual.
Demi Ace: a combination of demiromantic (experience a romantic attraction after an emotional connection has been formed) and asexual. Also sometimes used as a synonym for demisexual.
Truscum: transmedicalists that follow the medical definition of transsexualism - that it is a medical condition and an individual needs sex dysphoria to be trans.
Tucute/Transtrender: terms used for those who support trans people but often exclude transmen, truscum, or trans individuals with mental disorders.

Crossdreamer: individuals that dream about being the other sex and it is often part of their sexual fantasies.
Girlfag: a female who is attracted to gay, bisexual, and/or transmen and who may feels as though they are a gay male within a female body.
Guydyke: a man, generally cisgender and heterosexual, who is attracted to or wants to have relationships with lesbians. The term is used to describe a man who fetishes lesbians.
Autogynephilia: describes a sexuality in which a person is sexual aroused by the idea of themselves being the opposite sex. Distinguished from transgender or transsexual.

Remember that these are legitimate terms that online groups have created for themselves and the oppression they face. Just because you might not understand them or think they don't exist, does not mean that they aren't very real for certain people. Expand your vocab, be accepting of underrepresented groups, let people explore and create their own identities, sell your soul and your 20/20 vision to the interweb for the sake of knowledge!!!