Hi Jeremiah, thanks for your thoughts; I appreciate you taking the time to weigh in. Unfortunately I have to disagree with some of the points you've made here. I think there's a fundamental disagreement here on just how far women have come with feminism: yes, of course, we've made great strides since the days of our grandmothers and even mothers, but there's still a long, long way to go (see: equal pay), and in fact, women's rights have been backsliding lately (see: abortion clinics closing, threats to Planned Parenthood, Trump's reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule). Sure, there's no official Council of Males that meets in a rich-man cave every month to decide the fate of the world (although it sure seems like it, when you look at pictures of the Trump administration meeting to discuss legislation), but men still do run the world by and large: they dominate Congress (and have always dominated the presidency--close but not quite doesn't count!), their art and literature is still considered more serious and legitimate than women's art and literature, their bodily autonomy is not at risk of being legislated away...I could go on. Of course, men have problems too (we all have problems) but the facts show that they are not quite as imperiled as women are in American society. With all of that in mind, it's hard for me to understand why men wouldn't want to act to support a movement whose aim is to fight for the rights of 50 percent of the population.
That said, I do agree that we need models in our society for what positive masculinity can look like, and models for how men can act in a new, egalitarian, post-patriarchal world.
In reply to Hello there, Cataneo! Please by jeremiah
Hi Jeremiah, thanks for your thoughts; I appreciate you taking the time to weigh in. Unfortunately I have to disagree with some of the points you've made here. I think there's a fundamental disagreement here on just how far women have come with feminism: yes, of course, we've made great strides since the days of our grandmothers and even mothers, but there's still a long, long way to go (see: equal pay), and in fact, women's rights have been backsliding lately (see: abortion clinics closing, threats to Planned Parenthood, Trump's reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule). Sure, there's no official Council of Males that meets in a rich-man cave every month to decide the fate of the world (although it sure seems like it, when you look at pictures of the Trump administration meeting to discuss legislation), but men still do run the world by and large: they dominate Congress (and have always dominated the presidency--close but not quite doesn't count!), their art and literature is still considered more serious and legitimate than women's art and literature, their bodily autonomy is not at risk of being legislated away...I could go on. Of course, men have problems too (we all have problems) but the facts show that they are not quite as imperiled as women are in American society. With all of that in mind, it's hard for me to understand why men wouldn't want to act to support a movement whose aim is to fight for the rights of 50 percent of the population.
That said, I do agree that we need models in our society for what positive masculinity can look like, and models for how men can act in a new, egalitarian, post-patriarchal world.