Hello ladies and sons of ladies': women are using 'microfeminisms' to flip the gender script
The practice is not entirely serious – but it raises awareness of the many sexist tropes built into everyday life
Alaina Demopoulos
Tue 26 May 2026 07.00 EDT
When Tori Dunlap writes a letter or email to a heterosexual couple, she puts the woman’s name first in the greeting. When her good friend got married, Dunlap waited until the name-change documents were officially signed to update her surname in her phone contact. These tiny rebellions are not activism. They are “microfeminisms”, or what Dunlap, 31, describes as “little actions for women’s equality, as opposed to going to a protest or donating to a cause you believe in”.
Dunlap, a Seattle-based author and podcast host who focuses on promoting women’s financial literacy, posted on TikTok last year asking her 2.4 million followers: “Tell me your most unhinged way that you practice microfeminism.” The comments section filled with niche – and not entirely serious – answers, such as starting every work presentation by saying “hello ladies and sons of ladies” and “immediately assuming men are talking about women’s sports instead of men’s”.
Women on TikTok have revived the trend in recent weeks, sharing their own microfeminisms. “I call the spiders MOMMY long legs,” one user wrote in the caption of her TikTok. “Only planting female trees in my yard,” said one commenter. “As a waitress, whenever a couple orders the same thing, I give the larger portion or better looking one to the female,” wrote another.
The examples go on: “I default to ‘she’ when I don’t know the gender of an animal.” Saying, “‘I like your costume’ when they’re wearing a jersey.” “Instead of ‘Thank God’, I say, ‘Thank Goddess’.” “Assume the drink with the fruit and the umbrella is the man’s order.”
Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/may/26/microfeminism-tiktok-women-men
❤️pants