Ally Fogg firmly believes that it is for women to decide feminism, and that includes what place men should or should not have in the movement.
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GMP editor’s note: This post is part of a series produced by Ravishly, a partner of The Good Men Project, on men’s perspectives on Feminism. We will be running this series over the next week.
By Ally Fogg
A few months ago Emma Watson launched the HeForShe campaign on behalf of the United Nations, designed to involve men in combating violence and discrimination against women and girls. One of the first HeForShe initiatives announced was a conference, to be held in Iceland in January, to discuss and develop solutions to gender discrimination and the oppression of women. The conference is to be for men only.
Over the past five years or so, one of the most high-profile feminist organizations in the world has been led by a man. He is their organizer and ideological guru. His name is Victor Svyatski, the group is called Femen and they have made the front pages by pushing their prettiest activists to the front and then getting their tits out for the cameras.
Here in the UK this autumn there was a minor kerfuffle when a magazine asked the male leaders of our three main political parties to don a T-shirt proclaiming “This is what a feminist looks like.” The only one to refuse was Prime Minister David Cameron, who was vilified in some quarters for the decision. Presumably his critics believed that had he worn the shirt, this would have somehow made up for the fact that his policies have closed the doors on thousands of services including domestic violence shelters and family centers, pushed millions of women into poverty, and driven families with children onto the streets.
I do not know what a feminist looks like, but I can be pretty sure it doesn’t look like any of the above. Or does it? Over the years, feminism has been summoned like a genie to waft a cloud of righteousness over everything from selling cosmetics to bombing Afghanistan. The label has been worn by the likes of Sarah Palin (erstwhile member of Feminists For Life) and individualist libertarian and doyenne of the men’s rights movement, Christina Hoff Sommers, “the Factual Feminist.”
Is feminism really helped when its ranks are swollen by such individuals?
I have never really understood the fixation on whether or not women and men adopt the identity of feminist. As a man who writes extensively on gender politics, and men’s issues in particular, I find it less problematic to simply opt out. I choose not to identify as a feminist primarily so that no one need ever worry about whether or not I speak for feminism.
Does this mean I am any less committed to equality, justice and human rights? Absolutely not. Does it impact upon my work, my writing and my politics, or how I live my life, how I raise my sons, how I relate to women? Not in the slightest.
I firmly believe it is for women to define feminism, and that includes deciding what place men should or do have in the movement. There would be an obvious paradox were I to attempt to tell women how feminism should accommodate me. On a very personal level, however, I am drawn to the argument that feminist is not something one is, but something one does. On that basis, perhaps my own feminism is not for me to decide or judge. I am often called a feminist by others, in roughly equal measure as a compliment and an insult. I will continue to take it in the intended spirit either way.
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This article originally appeared on Ravishly.
For more like this from Ravishly, try:
Christina Sommers: Author,Who Stole Feminism?
More Than a Superhero: How Wonder Woman Shaped Feminism
Why It’s Time For Male Allies To Fight Men’s Rights Activists
Photo credit:Jay Morrison/flickr
So goes the “conversation,” right? So goes the “listening to what men have to say, right?
Eagle, my comments have been in limbo, still waiting foir your know what. If I say the word, it triggers the same.
Hey, BTW have a Happy New Year
So I take it that another one of my comments were deleted I’m no longer welcome to respond to anything in A Good Men Project thread of any sort? Including my own articles?
Well, thanks. This place has completely changed for the worst compared to 2011.
Hope your conscious sleeps well at night.
Me too
And I firmly believe that it is for men to decide whether or not that want a role in feminism at all. I’m going with…no.
If feminism should be driven by women and women’s interests only then why are some of you reluctant to grant similar leniency towards men in their own movement without dictating how they should operate and present themselves?
I also notice one of your links is called “Why Its Time for Male Allies to Fight Mens Rights Advocates”.
How interesting you advocate for equality while fighting against a group that’s also for equality, just not the kind of equality you agree with. So what’s the purpose behind fighting them? Because they don’t see equality the way you do?
“Does this mean I am any less committed to equality, justice and human rights? ” It actually means that you are more then likely the opposite.
As I mentioned as a response to another article “Only one-fifth of Americans identify as feminists, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll. But the vast majority fit the basic definition of the word.According to the survey, just 20 percent of Americans — including 23 percent of women and 16 percent of men — consider themselves feminists. Another 8 percent consider themselves anti-feminists, while 63 percent said they are neither.
The label has been worn by the likes of Sarah Palin (erstwhile member of Feminists For Life) and individualist libertarian and doyenne of the men’s rights movement, Christina Hoff Sommers, “the Factual Feminist.” Is feminism really helped when its ranks are swollen by such individuals? You’re seriously comparing the two? Sommers isn’t anti-equality, she is just willing to discuss points critical of mainstream feminism (or claims typically made by the same) that a lot of mainstream feminists automatically blow off. And think about it – if a self-identified FEMINIST can be the doyenne of the MRM, then doesn’t that imply… Read more »