I think that's because they don't really know what feminism is about. They seem to think it is a war between women and men, when in truth it's a fight for equality, and that includes men, of course. Those men who respect women and don't think they're above them, have also suffered because of the other men who think otherwise. So yeah, this isn't about females only.
Tbh I share your feelings. I sometimes don't know if I should call myself a feminist or not. I usually just say that I'm into social activism ^^;
I think that's a good way to put it-the social activism thing. I don't want to call myself a feminist because I don't like the connotations and associations of that, but it's not like I don't support women's rights.
"Feminist" is indeed a really loaded term. But it's really important to understand there's a whole swack of different type of feminisms and womanism. For example, I think the people you are likely thinking about is liberal feminists, who often fail to consider different axis of inequality and grasp what intersectionality means. Queer theory, which is undoubtedly rooted in feminist thinking, destabilizes the dichotomy of "male and female". As does Indigenous feminists, as we have a long history of recognizing many different genders and sexuality. (I myself am an Indigenous feminist). On that note, I come from a different standpoint which understands colonialism is a major factor in injustice, not just patriarchy, which many liberal feminists see as the basis of all oppression. The discussion of privilege (male privilege, white privilege, able-bodied privilege etc) is absolutely necessary, but it's important to consider the way in which we can or cannot relate to one another's experiences.
We talked briefly in class about the different types of feminists-or rather, the professor talked and all the students got super confused, haha. She was like, "80s radical feminists, modern radical feminists, modern liberal feminists, blah blah blah" and people were like "WAIT TOO FAST WAT" but since it's not really a class about feminism she didn't elaborate too much.
Indigenous feminism sounds interesting; I'm going to look into that.
Yeah it's bad if a man is like, "I'M A FEMINIST WHO KNOWS BETTER THAN YOU WOMEN FEMINISTS," but just regular men who support women's rights and stuff-I don't see a problem.
A lot of the time, men tend to come into feminist circles and talk over women, thinking they know better about a kind of oppression they don't directly experience themselves which is frustrating.
Yes! Definitely agree here. I have experienced this in some situations. Although in my TV & Gender class, the few male students tend to sit back and have said that they'll let us speak because we 'know better', but I don't know whether this is just because they're intimidated due to being outnumbered or don't have much interest in feminism. (...you might presume that someone taking a class on gender would have an interest in the subject, but when my housemate asked one of the guys why he had chosen the module, he said he 'thought it would be a laugh.')
My comment is a little tangenty because it responds to only parts of your thoughts:
I think that the reason the word "feminism" sits so badly on people is because of misogynists who go out of their way to make the term sound horrible. "Feminist" is just another way of saying "person who believes in and advocates for equality and justice" and the fact that people would prefer to call themselves "humanist", "social justice advocate", "equalist" or whatever else over "feminist" really speaks to how little anything related to women is respected.
Not calling oneself a feminist just because some feminists are terrible people is like not calling oneself a writer, a friend, a [job title], a [religious affiliation] just because other writers, friends, [job titles], [people of certain religions] are assholes, you know? In every group, stellar or horrible, there are bad eggs. In feminism, most of the eggs are wonderful, but people fixate on the very rare few bad eggs because that's what misogyny and patriarchy leads people to believe.
Oh, that's a really good point. I never really thought about it that way before. I think part of the reason it's more of an issue with feminism as opposed to your example of writers (for example) is because more of the "bad eggs" in feminism tend to be very loud and outspoken compared to those in writing. But I think the religion example is a good one. I'm not religious, but I definitely respect religion, and if I were religious I wouldn't give up on it or shy away from calling myself religious just because there are some people who share my religion who do bad things or whom I disagree with.
Thanks for sharing this view! I honestly hadn't thought about things from this perspective before.
I agree that the religion example is probably the best one and I'm happy that you can see my point of view. It's amazing how misogyny infects all of us, ESPECIALLY how it infects women and makes it difficult for us to even feel comfortable admitting that we believe that we deserve rights!
This is a great post. I definitely think that men can be feminists and encourage them to stand up for our rights, but I do think that they need to be careful about it and to understand and accept how they could be (or, most likely, are) a part of the problem (of course this applies to women too, but generally men moreso) and that they will never truly understand exactly what it is like to be a woman in this society - and that's okay, you can stand up and fight for someone's rights without having a full understanding of the experience of that person, but it does mean taking a greater effort to understand and acknowledging that you never will, fully. You know, I think that when you are standing up for the rights of an oppressed group that you are not a part of, you need to accept that you are part of the oppressing culture (rather than thinking that because you acknowledge that, say, racism or sexism is present, you are off the hook) and give more value to the opinions and experiences of those in the oppressed group, because on this
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Tbh I share your feelings. I sometimes don't know if I should call myself a feminist or not. I usually just say that I'm into social activism ^^;
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Queer theory, which is undoubtedly rooted in feminist thinking, destabilizes the dichotomy of "male and female". As does Indigenous feminists, as we have a long history of recognizing many different genders and sexuality. (I myself am an Indigenous feminist). On that note, I come from a different standpoint which understands colonialism is a major factor in injustice, not just patriarchy, which many liberal feminists see as the basis of all oppression.
The discussion of privilege (male privilege, white privilege, able-bodied privilege etc) is absolutely necessary, but it's important to consider the way in which we can or cannot relate to one another's experiences.
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Indigenous feminism sounds interesting; I'm going to look into that.
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Yes! Definitely agree here. I have experienced this in some situations. Although in my TV & Gender class, the few male students tend to sit back and have said that they'll let us speak because we 'know better', but I don't know whether this is just because they're intimidated due to being outnumbered or don't have much interest in feminism. (...you might presume that someone taking a class on gender would have an interest in the subject, but when my housemate asked one of the guys why he had chosen the module, he said he 'thought it would be a laugh.')
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I think that the reason the word "feminism" sits so badly on people is because of misogynists who go out of their way to make the term sound horrible. "Feminist" is just another way of saying "person who believes in and advocates for equality and justice" and the fact that people would prefer to call themselves "humanist", "social justice advocate", "equalist" or whatever else over "feminist" really speaks to how little anything related to women is respected.
Not calling oneself a feminist just because some feminists are terrible people is like not calling oneself a writer, a friend, a [job title], a [religious affiliation] just because other writers, friends, [job titles], [people of certain religions] are assholes, you know? In every group, stellar or horrible, there are bad eggs. In feminism, most of the eggs are wonderful, but people fixate on the very rare few bad eggs because that's what misogyny and patriarchy leads people to believe.
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Thanks for sharing this view! I honestly hadn't thought about things from this perspective before.
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