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"It's clear you don't know what feminism is": Mark Ruffalo just dropped a truth bomb.

 

Be still, my beating heart.

Our imaginary boyfriend Mark Ruffalo has proven (again) that he is much more than an excellent actor and first-class dreamboat.

He’s also an activist. Issues he’s been vocal about include but are not limited to: the dangers of fracking, climate change, water preservation, clean energy sources – and feminism.

If you’ve never listened to him talking about his pro-choice views, or watched him respond charmingly to the Cosmo reporter who asked him questions that would normally be aimed at his Avengers co-star Scarlett Johansson, you mightn’t know it, but Ruffalo, 47, is a feminist, and a vocal one.

Actor, feminist, father, husband and dreamboat, Mark Ruffalo.

He posted a truly great response to the online trend for young women to pose with signs describing why they don’t need feminism.

We could just quote bits of it, but it really warrants being posted in full.

Does Ruffalo ruffle you (geddit?)? Post continues after the gallery…

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“My response to the ‘I am not a feminist’ internet phenomenon….

“First of all, it’s clear you don’t know what feminism is. But I’m not going to explain it to you. You can google it. To quote an old friend, ‘I’m not the feminist babysitter.’

“But here is what I think you should know,” he wrote on his Tumblr account.

Huh? This is one of many, many “I don’t need feminism” memes cropping up online.

“You’re insulting every woman who was forcibly restrained in a jail cell with a feeding tube down her throat for your right to vote, less than 100 years ago.

“You’re degrading every woman who has accessed a rape crisis center, which wouldn’t exist without the feminist movement.

Disturbingly, many young women who claim not to need feminism seem to believe it involves man-hating and not being feminine.

“You’re undermining every woman who fought to make marital rape a crime (it was legal until 1993). You’re spitting on the legacy of every woman who fought for women to be allowed to own property (1848),” he continued.

This girl doesn’t need equality, apparently.

“For the abolition of slavery and the rise of the labor union. For the right to divorce. For women to be allowed to have access to birth control (Comstock laws). For middle and upper class women to be allowed to work outside the home (poor women have always worked outside the home). To make domestic violence a crime in the US (It is very much legal in many parts of the world). To make workplace sexual harassment a crime.”

Ruffalo with his wife and the mother of his three kids, Sunrise Coigney.

“In short, you know not what you speak of. You reap the rewards of these women’s sacrifices every day of your life. When you grin with your cutsey sign about how you’re not a feminist, you ignorantly spit on the sacred struggle of the past 200 years. You bite the hand that has fed you freedom, safety, and a voice.
“In short, kiss my ass, you ignorant little jerks.”

Preach, Ruffalo.

Here are some more of the Internet memes Ruffalo is responding to…

Read more: Who’s beating the drum for feminism?

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