For many years, even back when I was male, I considered myself a feminist. I sometimes encountered these kinds of arguments as well, that my feminist beliefs somehow didn't matter because of sex or my gender. It was really frustrating!
To be clear, I certainly don't believe in "doesn't matter". I don't agree with the assertion that "men can't be feminists". I think I agree with a sentiment that permeated the discussion: the sentiment that the "gulf of experience" matters a lot more than many want to acknowledge.
I totally disagree! I think that if you just say "there's a gulf of experience" and shrug your shoulders, then that's just giving up!
I guess the question that I think is relevent is: "what does it mean to give up?" For my part, I'm not arguing that men shouldn't be involved in feminist actions or organizations. And I'm certainly not advocating that men and women can't work together toward common "egalitarian" goals as epi_lj talks about, above. But I think that the vast number of feminist organizations, mostly headed by women, cannot get adequately address men's issues because they're not men (and vice versa). I additionally think that eliminating feminist groups and replacing them with egalitarian groups will result in a loss of something valuable.
I do think that it's viable to have a feminist movement and a men's movement and an egalitarian movement all working in parallel. And sometimes colliding.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2003-02-23 09:29 pm (UTC)For many years, even back when I was male, I considered myself a feminist. I sometimes encountered these kinds of arguments as well, that my feminist beliefs somehow didn't matter because of sex or my gender. It was really frustrating!
To be clear, I certainly don't believe in "doesn't matter". I don't agree with the assertion that "men can't be feminists". I think I agree with a sentiment that permeated the discussion: the sentiment that the "gulf of experience" matters a lot more than many want to acknowledge.
I totally disagree! I think that if you just say "there's a gulf of experience" and shrug your shoulders, then that's just giving up!
I guess the question that I think is relevent is: "what does it mean to give up?" For my part, I'm not arguing that men shouldn't be involved in feminist actions or organizations. And I'm certainly not advocating that men and women can't work together toward common "egalitarian" goals as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
epi_lj talks about, above. But I think that the vast number of feminist organizations, mostly headed by women, cannot get adequately address men's issues because they're not men (and vice versa). I additionally think that eliminating feminist groups and replacing them with egalitarian groups will result in a loss of something valuable.
I do think that it's viable to have a feminist movement and a men's movement and an egalitarian movement all working in parallel. And sometimes colliding.