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Would you call yourself a feminist? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 day ago by wuphysics87@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I'm a cis male and I believe in the importance of feminism, but I hesitate to call myself a feminist because it seems like there is a presumption of understanding women's experiences as if I was part of the Me Too movement. In some binary sense given how hateful and shitty men can be I'm absolutely a feminist, but I wouldn't declare myself to be one. What is your standpoint?

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[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

First off, I agree with your comment of course, wow the person you're responding to is delusional. But I want to raise a point of discussion:

has it improved the relationship between men and women? You seem to be making things about men again. Men are already an exceptionally privileged demographic compared to other genders, feminism does not need to help them, it needs to help women.

If the definition of feminism adopted by most feminist organizations is truly that all people, regardless of gender, should be treated equally, then surely that would mean they should take actions to solve gender-related issues that don't exclusively affect women? If not, then the definition they're using is at odds with the actions they're willing to take, no?

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I think it's a fair question/point. Different factions within feminism will give different answers to that. Personally as a cis man I am fine with feminism focusing primarily or exclusively on women's issues (it's in the name), we should have other movements to deal with the way those same issues affecting other genders. Activism and organizing is almost never a zero-sum game, someone can be a feminist and an LGBTQ activist and a socialist for example.

The way this ties into the OC is that it is OK for feminist activism to take away privileges from men if that means improving rights for women. Even if there was a dichotomy of "there are fewer hetero relationships but women are safer from sexual harassment" as presented by OC — which, to be clear, is a false dichotomy and not actually what the vast majority of feminists are advocating for — it would be a fine step to take.