“What defines a feminist?” is a heavily debated question within scholarly and mainstream discourse. Although prior studies have examined adults’ definitions of feminist, less is known about adolescents’ conceptualizations. This study explores definitions of “feminist” in a mixed-gender, racially/ethnically diverse sample of high-school adolescents in the Southeastern United States (n = 213; M_age = 16.23, SD_age = .76; 61% adolescent girls; 47% White/Caucasian, 25% Hispanic/Latinx, 23% Black/African American). Participants responded to the open-ended prompt: “How do you define the word ‘feminist’?” Thematic analysis identified three overarching themes: (1) supporting gender equality and women’s rights (63% of responses), with four subthemes: gender equality, women’s rights, activism, pro-women; (2) seeking attention and power over men (24% of responses), with three subthemes: gender adversaries, pejorative views of feminists, feminism is unnecessary; and (3) confusing feminist with other terms and concepts (14% of responses), including mixing up terms and concepts and unsure. Participants expressed multiple subthemes in their individual responses, with some defining “feminist” in both positive and negative ways. Overlap among themes is discussed in the context of multifaceted notions of feminism. Although definitions about gender equality were more common than those focused on feminists seeking power over men, most adolescents (58%) did not identify as a feminist, suggesting additional barriers to self-identifying beyond misunderstanding the goals of feminism or holding negative views of feminists. Findings illuminate both the stability of long-standing tensions about feminists and the novelty of emerging trends in adolescents’ conceptions of feminists.

“什么定义了女权主义者？” 在学术和主流话语中是一个备受争议的问题。尽管先前的研究已经检查了成年人对女权主义的定义，但对青少年的概念化知之甚少。本研究探讨了美国东南部混合性别、种族/民族多样化的高中青少年样本中“女权主义者”的定义（n  = 213；M_年龄 = 16.23，SD_年龄 = .76；61% 的少女； 47% 白人/高加索人，25% 西班牙裔/拉丁裔，23% 黑人/非裔美国人）。参与者对开放式提示做出回应：“你如何定义‘女权主义者’这个词？” 主题分析确定了三个总体主题：（1）支持性别平等和妇女权利（占答复的 63%），有四个子主题：性别平等、妇女权利、激进主义、支持妇女；(2)寻求对男性的关注和权力（24% 的回答），包含三个子主题：性别反对者、女权主义者的贬义观点、女权主义是不必要的；(3)将女权主义者与其他术语和概念混淆（14% 的回答），包括混淆术语和概念以及不确定。参与者在他们的个人回答中表达了多个子主题，其中一些以积极和消极的方式定义了“女权主义者”。在女权主义的多方面概念的背景下讨论了主题之间的重叠。尽管关于性别平等的定义比那些专注于寻求超越男性的女权主义者的定义更为普遍，但大多数青少年 (58%) 并不认为自己是女权主义者，这表明除了误解女权主义的目标或对女权主义者持有负面看法之外，还有其他障碍来进行自我认同. 研究结果既说明了关于女权主义者的长期紧张局势的稳定性，也说明了青少年女权主义者概念中新兴趋势的新颖性。