A listener to The Megyn Kelly Show asked its host whether she considered herself a feminist. The listener was careful to make sure Kelly understood she was asking from genuine curiosity and not as a “gotcha.”

This is a great question to ask successful professional women. The expectation is they will always answer “Of course!” because it is assumed the question is simply another way of asking “Do you believe women are fully human under law?” How could you possibly answer “no”?

Kelly clearly appreciated the genuineness of the question and gave a refreshingly frank and intelligent answer. It is clear Megyn Kelly is a woman who thinks for herself and says what she believes, which is something we always want to encourage in our daughters.

She wasted no time getting to the punch,

For me it’s a no-brainer. I’m definitely not a feminist because I think feminists, that term right now, has become associated with a few different things that I don’t want anything to do with. Feminists of today are 100% anti-Republican, anti-conservative. They can’t stand conservative women.

She continued,

I think they’re anti-men. Their rhetoric on trying to empower women, too often for me, does so by denigrating men. That’s not the way forward. That’s not the way to empower hearts, minds and I don’t agree with it.

Kelly said such a negative view of men does not align with her own lived experience, “I’m married to a good man and I produced two more and I don’t want to join any organization that wants to dump on them.”

She also complained that to be a feminist in good standing today, you must support abortion. She called out organizations like the National Organization for Women who “will openly denigrate people who are on the life side of this” adding, “they don’t want freedom for women to have a different viewpoint than they do.” Kelly added, “If you call yourself a feminist, you are saying you are pro-choice. You are! I’m not signing up for that.”

You can listen to her thoughtful five-minute answer explaining why strong women should absolutely refuse the term.

The great G. K. Chesterton correctly explained long ago that it is the feminist who ironically dislikes the chief feminine characteristics in humanity. This is exactly what Megyn Kelly is saying in her very wise comments.

Women deserve better than what contemporary feminism has devolved into.

Photo from MIKE SEGAR/REUTERS