I think the problem with the term "feminist" is that it's become a bit like the term "liberal" in the US, it's been misused, misapplied or misappropriated so many times that some people want to disassociate themselves from it regardless of whether they should or not (faeriecween for example always vehemently denied being a feminist, despite being succesful in a field that would have previously been denied her, etc).

It's why I tend to talk about equality of opportunity a lot more than more gendered terms, you can't be misunderstood if you avoid terms some people choose to misinterpret. Similar-but-different example, "vegetarians" who eat fish, cause problems for real vegetarians. "Feminist" is frequently interpreted to mean "man-hating-loon", and it's hard to dissassociate that in the minds of many, no matter how wrong the assumption is.