With International Women’s Day on March 8, and the CUSA Womyn’s Centre hosting International Women’s Week from March 7-11, the feminist debate is once again on the minds of Carleton students. And with the debate comes the eventual question: is there space for males in feminism?
I’m here to tell you there is room—you can’t manifest social change when you discount half of the population. Male allies are needed. Feminism is good for people of all genders—including men—because it is about social, political, and economic equality for everyone.
Feminist campaigns and fighting for women’s rights has often become associated with man-hating for many. Ending this stereotype is the main focus behind the UN campaign HeForShe: to end man-hating and instead encourage men to participate in the conversation and become part of the cause. This manifested itself last week through the HeForShe coffee house and the Walk a Mile in her Shoes stair climb, where men on campus walked up the UniCentre steps in high heels.
Men and women alike can become fearful of identifying as a feminist because of the groups they associate it with. Radical feminist factions are usually the first image that pops into the heads of those unfamiliar or new to the concept of feminism. But there is no right nor wrong definition of feminism.
For some, feminism means being completely independent of a man. For others—such as trans exclusionary radical feminism—it is preserving a cis-privileged world. And for some, feminism means the end of the patriarchy.
Men absolutely need to be involved in the discussion and campaign for women’s rights. Just as non-Black people need to be involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, just as privileged people need to be involved in the abolition of poverty, and just as Christians must help to battle Islamophobia, there needs to be widespread support from those who are not necessarily being fought for, but who can help fight.
However, it doesn’t make sense to completely neglect the problems men face, or the problems non-Black people face, or the problems privileged people face, for example, as if they don’t exist.
A privileged person can suffer from a mental disability. A homeless man can be marginalized.
Things are not right in the world when we strike one group of people down to lift another group up. That is the bane of our existence!
We are all humans. There is not a single person out there in the world who is less human than the next. We must all strive for equality because of that reason. We must not let the stereotypes of history stand in the way of happiness for all.
And yes, that’s corny. But maybe a corny outlook on life is exactly what we need right now.
