They hear the word and they think of misandry, primarily because so many misandrists think they're feminists and very loudly proclaim so. The problem is, the more you try to convince them feminism isn't what they think, the more they tune you out because if you talk about feminism so much, you must hate men enough to dole out your own hatred as payback. Which is exactly the preconception you're trying to address.

Idk, maybe feminism just needs a good ol' rebranding. I think it would at least win over a lot of the under 50 crowd.