Feminism doesn’t mean a battle of the sexes, but a common goal for all
Feminism doesn’t mean a battle of the sexes, but a common goal for all
Those who worry that the advances for women’s rights mean disempowering men have it all wrong. Feminism is for all of us, because the inequalities we face are all related
Holding the door open for a woman is not a crime.
Looking out over a sea of hands on a recent school visit, I felt a warm rush of elation at the sight of every single pupil raising their arm to affirm that they were a feminist. Except that’s not quite what happened. In fact, when I asked everybody who was a feminist to put their hand up, the result was a paltry scattering or hands – 20% of the assembly hall at best. So I asked the pupils to raise their hands if they thought everybody should be treated equally regardless of their sexuality, and every hand in the room went up. I asked them if everybody should be treated equally regardless of skin colour and, again, the response rate was 100%. Finally I asked them to put their hand up if they thought everybody should be treated equally regardless of their sex. Everybody in the room raised an arm.
“If you have your hand up now”, I explained, “then you’re a feminist. That’s what feminism means.” Apart from a few horrified boys who snatched their hands down in dismay, the general reaction was one of bemusement. Several kids asked if boys were allowed to be feminists, and others protested that they couldn’t possibly be, since feminism meant wanting women to defeat, overtake, or generally beat men into submission.
It’s not surprising that these outdated and false stereotypes persist, given their stubborn repetition in the media and across the internet. In fact, there seems to be a huge amount of anxiety about the current resurgence of feminism and what it might mean for men. In the past week alone we have seen wails that the sacking of Jeremy Clarkson points to an “emasculated” BBC, articles proclaiming that UN statistics on sexual violence unfairly malign men, comment pieces that declare the “real” everyday sexism in the UK to be against men; even Russell Crowe mourning “the loss of traditional masculinity”.
What’s strange is that often at the heart of this panic is an entirely false dichotomy. First, such arguments suggest that tackling issues such as sexism, street harassment or domestic violence somehow precludes action on problems that disproportionately affect men. The idea that the fight for gender equality somehow erases masculinity or disempowers men seems to be strangely insulting to any man whose sense of identity doesn’t come from being offensive to women. Feminism doesn’t mean doors can’t be held open any more,or the end of flirting, or that men should never again pay a woman a compliment. That’s simple human kindness we should all show one another regardless of gender.
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http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2015/mar/27/feminism-battle-sexes-womens-rights-men
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