The F word

I ran into this video talking about the word "feminist" in particular. Joss Whedon in this video talks about how he specifically hates the question "Are you a feminist?" Which made me think of how much we have talked about how some people refuse to call themselves a feminist because of the negative connotation that often comes with the word. Just like in the presentation that talked about stars like Zooey Deschanel referring to herself as a feminist, so often the phrase I'm a feminist is said in this way "I'm a feminist, but..." or even the opposite "I'm not a feminist, but..." Why does it always have to come with an exception? Joss tells us in his speech that what he finds most problematic about the word feminist is the "ist" part of the word and here is why:

Let's go back to this ist, okay. Let's rise up a little bit from my obsession with sound to the meaning. Ist in it's meaning is also a problem for me. Because you can't be born an ist. It's not natural. You can't be born a baptist; you have to be baptized. You can't be born an atheist or a communist or a horticulturalist. You have to have these things brought to you. So feminist includes the idea that believing men and women to be equal, believing all people to be people, is not a natural state. That we don't emerge assuming that everybody in the human race is a human, that the idea of equality is just an idea that's imposed on us. That we are indoctrinated with it, that it's an agenda.

Here is the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDmzlKHuuoI