The story’s title character is a white man with narrow shoulders, referred to only as “The Feminist.” He attends a formerly all-girls private high school that became co-ed shortly before his enrollment. As one of the school’s few male students, he is taught the value of feminism as a way of getting women to trust him. The Feminist rejects the only schoolmate who has a crush on him because he isn’t attracted to her body type.

In college, The Feminist learns that none of his peers ascribe to feminist values. Instead, they are obsessed with appearances and reinforcing gender stereotypes. The Feminist believes his small physique cannot attract anyone. Whenever he asks women out, they offer him friendship instead of romance and encourage him to keep searching for the right girl. His female friends reassure him not to take it personally. The Feminist sometimes masturbates thinking of his female friends because he feels it is taboo. 

The Feminist notes that both conventionally attractive and unattractive men enter relationships with his female friends. In some cases, these men turn out to be abusive, but The Feminist’s female friends shrug it off, confusing him further.

The Feminist enters his mid-twenties and starts watching domination porn. He grows increasingly concerned that frequent masturbation will eventually cause him to experience physical desensitization. During lunch with his male coworkers, The Feminist indicates that he would likely ask a woman’s consent to kiss her. When his coworkers discourage him from doing this, he argues that they are perpetuating rape culture. The Feminist’s QPOC agender friend affirms his decision to call his coworkers out, but The Feminist wonders if his male coworkers’ conventional dating approaches do have some merit and decides to seek more dating experience.

The Feminist creates an online dating profile and communicates his feminist values in his bio. All of his matches abandon him before the first date is over. Unsure if his honesty is disadvantaging him, The Feminist starts to worry that he has been a creep all along and pesters his QPOC friend for confirmation.

When he is 31, The Feminist reencounters the woman who had a crush on him in high school. The changes in her physical appearance appeal to him, so he invites her to catch up. After several drinks, the girl brings up her ex-boyfriend and her eating disorder. The Feminist wants to reject her again but asks if he can kiss her; when she says no, she shoves him and laughs when she realizes The Feminist is wearing shoulder pads to accentuate his physique. She apologizes, then invites him to have sex. The sex is uncomfortable, and The Feminist is unable to orgasm.

The encounter exacerbates his self-loathing, which prompts thoughts of self-harm and isolation. He resents his female friends for having romantic lives and worries that his masturbation habits have had a negative impact on his sex life. His QPOC friend accuses him of craving pity and refusing to adapt. The friend complains that The Feminist keeps burdening them with the task of giving him approval. 

The Feminist refuses to accept his friend’s criticisms and downplays their feelings. The friend ends their relationship. When The Feminist’s former friend calls him out online as a hypocrite, The Feminist retaliates, accusing the QPOC friend of humiliating a male ally. He later deletes the post. 

In his thirties, The Feminist decides that love and sex will not fulfill him, but he remains convinced that he needs to experience real love. He starts looking for women in their twenties on dating apps, believing they can help him to catch up on missed experiences. He engages in self-improvement; his difficulty breathing, erectile dysfunction, and incontinence prompt him to see a doctor, who diagnoses him with a stress-related levator spasm. The Feminist links it to his loneliness. He attempts to enlarge his penis and improve his masturbation performance, but these only worsen his mood and make him feel more repulsed by his body. He has suicidal ideation. 

The Feminist hires sex workers to gain more sexual experience. His high expectations prevent him from enjoying each session. When he turns 40, in his old favorite Italian bistro, he gets into an altercation with women pushing baby strollers, validating his actions as a form of resistance.

Several years later, The Feminist resigns himself to never getting what he really wants. He decides that women have failed feminism, perpetuating their own suffering. He turns to online communities for solidarity with other narrow-shouldered feminist men, which he determines is the most oppressed group since it gets no support from men and women alike.

One night, a new user writes a post mocking the forum for their entitled mindset. He calls them out for thinking that their sex lives define their self-worth. Most of the other forum users answer back with insults. The Feminist is ashamed on the new user’s behalf and realizes that he knows exactly what they are going through. 

The Feminist writes a lengthy response explaining that despite his best efforts to understand the perspective of women, women have done nothing to understand his perspective. He claims that by experiencing fulfilling relationships, women have stolen his life from him. He claims that he has done his part to support women as an activist and ally. He urges the new user to see that women have been exploiting allies for support and giving the rewards to undeserving men. While The Feminist would have died for the cause of feminism, he now believes that his bachelorhood is a symbol of the injustice that women have committed against him. He calls on the new user to reject bachelorhood, arguing that the odds of remaining a bachelor are statistically impossible given all the women who have told him that the right woman would be lucky to have him.

The new user never replies to The Feminist. The Feminist decides that he needs to validate his response. Several weeks later, he returns to the Italian bistro and holds the door open for a woman in her twenties. He then puts on a ski mask and retrieves an object from his backpack as he enters.