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"  What do Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Marissa Mayer and, now, Beyonc\u00E9 have in common? For one, they are all kick-ass, uber-successful women. But they&amp;#039;re also loathe to call themselves &amp;quot;feminists.&amp;quot;  Mayer recently made a statement in a PBS documentary saying, &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t think that I would consider myself a feminist,&amp;quot; adding that she finds the f-word super negative. In an interview for the latest issue of British Vogue, Queen B revealed that she feels similarly about labeling herself as a &amp;quot;feminist.&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;That word can be very extreme,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;But I guess I am a modern-day feminist. I do believe in equality. Why do you have to choose what type of woman you are? Why do you have to label yourself anything? I&amp;#039;m just a woman and I love being a woman.&amp;quot;  I&amp;#039;m a huge Bey fan (um, how can you not be?!), but I am so confused as to why she and other awesome women are so averse to identifying with feminism. Sure, the feminist movement has been extreme at times, but the only explanation I can think of for women not wanting to self-label as feminist is that they don&amp;#039;t know what the word actually means and just picture a bunch of crazy, hairy-legged manhaters. Why else would smart, savvy, down-with-equality women reject it?  By definition, however, feminism is actually &amp;quot;a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women.&amp;quot; That doesn&amp;#039;t sound too &amp;quot;extreme&amp;quot; to us. (Note: there&amp;#039;s no rule mandating that self-identifying feminists must burn their bras.)  But even though everyone who believes in equal rights is pretty much a feminist, the term still carries a stigma that makes many women wary of it. (In college, I decided to get my feminism on by performing in the Vagina Monologues and some of my sorority sisters definitely gave the side eye to my I-am-woman, hear-me-scream-the-word-vagina-in-middle-of-campus antics.)  We wanna hear what you think: Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why or why not?  Want more from Natasha? Follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook. Photo: Getty Images  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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