A lot of feminists today will go around proclaiming the inequalities that women suffer and fighting for equal pay and treatment under the law. This is wonderful, but I've noticed that many times if a man suffers the same injustice they don't care or sometimes they even mock it. For example there are a lot of female comedians that make jokes about men that border on the sexist and hint at being serious. These jokes are received as funny and lighthearted, but when a male comedian does the same thing many feminists have a call to action to figuratively put his head on a pike and boycott his comedy.
This reaction also translates to more serious issues. Feminists organizations often take up a call to action when a woman says she was raped and a court won't file charges because she had alcohol in her system. This is something that should be done and be taken care of, but they do not do the same for men. If a man has the same issue occur they often times ignore it. Rape is rape and should be prosecuted as such. They should not act as if it doesn't happen to men. The fact is a lot of men are raped after drugs or alcohol have been in their system and can't take the issue to court because those are found in their system, but feminists often do not take this seriously and perpetuate the stereotype that only women are endangered of being drugged or raped. In case you believe I am exaggerating here is a quote (and link) to an essay that talks specifically about the problems in how feminists define, treat and deal with rape vs. other forms of gender based violence and male victims.
"When I say rape is privileged in feminist discourse, I don’t mean that it benefits anybody. I believe that by focusing on the centrality of rape in our culture, feminists are actually making it more difficult for all of us to campaign against all forms of gendered violence in society.
Trying to work out why these feminists do this is difficult. My instinct is that holding onto special victim status has some pay-offs for feminists. They can continue to present gender politics as a binary opposition between men (potential rapists) and women (perpetual potential victims of rape). Basically, the concept of rape culture is misandrist, and it does not allow for the fact that women are sometimes perpetrators of sexual assault, and men are sometimes on the receiving end."
http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/feminisms-mythological-rape-culture/In addition to this many feminists themselves will stereotype men as being misogynists out to undermine female progress. Some like to post about how men can't reason as well as women and how women are just in general better than men. Sarcastically posting that women rule and men suck is one thing but when feminist women get online and post stereotypical comments about men there is usually a serious undertone to it and it makes all feminists look bad. Another problem that many feminists encounter is that men think all feminists are trying to be superior to them because they see these comments online or in the media. They don't realize that it's only the more radical feminists doing things like this and it creates a huge problem with the perception of feminists.
I'm not trying to generalize all feminists, but I want to point out why they encounter so much resistance. The fact is, all feminists need to look at their actions and make sure they want men and women to be equal. Not to just put men down and feel superior to them. I want feminism to get back to its core goals and beliefs and get rid of the hypocritical, extreme parts of it. I know there are always radical people in all groups but I want to see the mass opinion on feminists change. I only bring this up because that is how the world views the feminist perspective today, because too many feminists behave this way. Just to demonstrate my point here is a meme about how many people view what feminists have to say about themselves and men.

http://shortnoticelife.blogspot.com/2013/03/im-not-feminist-but.html
ReplyDeleteA response to Mary's post. :) (No hard feelings, just adding to the discussion.)