'The View' co-host insists Gloria Gaynor is actually a feminist after singer rejects title

The ladies of "The View" tried to make sense of why Gloria Gaynor does not consider her iconic song, "I Will Survive," to be a feminist anthem and why she would not label herself a feminist.

In a recent interview with the UK outlet Metro, Gaynor said that one of the biggest misconceptions about her is that people think she's a feminist. Her 1978 mega-hit was not so much a feminist ballad, she said, but one that put a spotlight on trauma, as she was dealing with some of her own struggles at the time, including recent back surgery and the loss of her mom a few years prior. 

She added that having grown up with five brothers, she "loves men."

"The View" hosts reacted to Gaynor's surprising take during their "Hot Topics" discussion on Tuesday while also trying to define the word "feminism."

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Gloria Gaynor performs during the "Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive" premiere during the 2023 Tribeca Festival at Spring Studios on June 9, 2023, in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival)

The table was nearly unanimous in agreeing that the word feminism simply means equality between genders. After sharing her definition, co-host Sara Haines suggested that Gaynor is actually a feminist.

"Because I think the feminist movement has changed over the decades, as to who the icons were, what the point and the mission was," Haines said. "But ultimately, feminism is just equality for women to have the same opportunities. So, I think she really deeply is a feminist."

Haines and her co-hosts continued to try and define the somewhat divisive term. The common misconception, Haines said, is that "feminism means you hate men."

"They don't have to be zero-sum issues," she continued. "To have equality for women does nothing to men."

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"The View" co-hosts debated the term "feminism" on Tuesday. (Screenshot/ABC)

"The thing is, you don't hate men," Joy Behar agreed. "What you hate is sexism and misogyny. That should be clear to everyone. Because men are feminists also."

Behar later added that women have been "paying attention" to these cultural issues since the second wave of the feminist movement in the 1970s.

"I think most women believe in equal rights, in empowering other women," Alyssa Farah Griffin added. "And I think that it becomes this sort of loaded term that people may interpret different ways. Like you're burning your bra, or you hate men."

She suggested it's a generational issue, where younger people are more "prone to labels."

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Gloria Gaynor performs onstage at the 15th Annual Induction Ceremony for the New Jersey Hall of Fame at NJPAC on October 29, 2023, in Newark, New Jersey.  (Bryan Bedder/Variety via Getty Images)

Sunny Hostin chimed in to say there shouldn't be any bad connotations associated with the label, and that it's OK to be a feminist and still admire the opposite sex.

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"I don't know why equality is suddenly a bad thing," Hostin noted. "I don't know why diversity and inclusion and equality is such a bad thing. The bottom line is, you can be someone that supports women having equal rights, and Black people having equal rights, and people that are disabled having equal rights, and people in the LGBTQ+ community having equal rights, and still love a man!" 

In addition to writing "I Will Survive" to encourage victims of trauma, Gaynor has in recent years also associated the song with her return to faith.

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"When I read the lyrics, I realized the reason they'd been waiting for me to record that song was that God had given that song to them for them to set aside, waiting for him to get everything in order for me to meet up with them. And that song was ‘I Will Survive,'" Gaynor told NPR in 2019.

Fox News Digital's Hanna Panreck and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.