Feminism Is a Man’s Issue

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Feminism — advocacy for equality for all –won’t succeed so long as it is seen to be a woman’s issue. Men, they say, benefit most from the patriarchy. This is not actually true, but it is an embedded, societal, meme.

This is because “benefit” is the wrong word. It is true that the whitest, richest, older, and more powerful people on the planet do happen to have an inordinate greater number of penises.

Of course, LGBTQI+ people are even less represented.

Indeed, more men than women hold power, influence, wealth, and autonomy. But everyone — male and female — suffers their individual crushed feeling from laboring under this oppressive, heavy as a pyramid, scheme.

Where are the men?

Just after Predator Trump’s election, it was organizing women, (here in Hawaii!) that first proposed a March on Washington. The result in early 2017 was the largest activist march and movement in all of human history up to that day in history. Period.

As then, it was women who showed up in large numbers to win the midterms. It was women now, just as it was women always, at the forefront of liberation, emancipation, suffrage, and equality issues. Thank you, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Claudette Colvin, Susan Anthony, Liz Cady Stanton, Mother Jones, Tarana Burke, Ashley Judd, and Greta Thunberg…to name just a few.

More men than women have fought these movements — usually by enlisting an army of hardworking women. More women than men worry about reproductive health and choice, although at last check, no babies have been born without sperm.

Women, in vastly greater numbers, organize and rally for #Metoo, March for our Lives, climate action, Black Lives Matter, and more.

Although women are often guilty of internalized sexism, they still maintain more awareness of human rights issues such as child trafficking, wage inequality, child care, low power access, and harassment issues than most men do. Yes, all of us are sexist to an extent, but it honestly seems like more men than women are okay with that.

The Man Box is not that comfortable.

The Man box is not a man cave. Rather than being a comfortable and safe space for people of the male persuasion, it is a trap.

Just as being set upon a Madonna/whore pedestal is too small a place for a woman to feel free, a Man Box is a tiny cell walled in with ridiculous expectations. Men are supposed to be tough. Brooding. Strong. Non-emotional (except for anger). They are meat-eaters, dinner hunters, bread-winners, heads of families, and final authority. In government, priesthoods, corporations and at home, even romance, they are the ones asked to be bold, aggressive, and in charge. Their elite dominate, founding slavery, nationalism, planetary pollution, colonialism, and frat boys gone bad.

The rest of the males, and all women, serve the status quo.

Men who are sick to death of having to live up to absurd prescriptions of behavior and so-called success are stepping up to step out of the Man Box. Men who understand that cooperation is far better for them than domination, don’t want to be in any box.

Yet, here we are.

If more men readily supported feminism that allows for equal social autonomy, the Man Box — -and toxic masculinity, itself — -could be universally dismissed. Is masculinity toxic? No! Not all pills are red. Not all pills are blue.

But the bold out there — -the real heroes of bravery and masculinity — -are not just out for themselves; they are out for humanity,.
We seek protection for all people of every sex and gender who are more vulnerable to injustice.

For men who care to hear all voices, here is your invite:

Now it is 2020, and the most thoroughly competent and prepared candidate for President, Elizabeth Warren, has been shoved off the debate stage. Although she outperformed all others, she was effectively sidelined due to concerns about “electability” her “shrill” tone, her “scolding” ways, her “vicious feud” with Bernie Sanders, her “slow” response to outlining her healthcare details, her “likability” or any number of many, many nitpicks most men don’t have to face when they run in an election.

Women recognize this immediately, but are you men hearing it?

Trump’s “electability” or, rather, non-electability did not stop him from attaining the highest office in the land. Nor did his overt racism, sexism, and xenophobia stop him.

Likability? Trump’s likability is more than just a very bad joke. In fact, many people who “like” him actually don’t like him at all. What they may like is that he openly dislikes female people, brown people, poor people, and non-prosperity gospel, “Christian” people.

Yet, the haters should not be confused with the misled. Some voters really want systemic change. Some want to blow up the system itself, and some just don’t see what is really happening. Some like a “strong” male authority figure. Some even like the authoritarian figure. Some — -a lot of them — -are convinced that progress will ruin everything they hold dear.

Never forget, also, that the largest party in the United States of America is the non-voters. They are just disgusted with everything political. Everything political, after all, has been turned into everything polarizing and hateful.

Melting at the Poles

The world is melting at the poles. America and democracy are melting at the polls. More recently, our healthcare safety nets, are recognized as being wholly ineffective in times of pandemic.

Experts think this is due to the domination model that we follow blindly.

When feminism stops being a bad word, and people understand that simple fairness benefits everyone, I think this will change.

Ranking and oppression of people and planet are going to speed up, slow down, or maybe, in one thousand years, (?) reverse.

In the meantime, we need to learn vocabulary words. Feminism describes fairness and equality for people. But we need more of the male people to recognize how it will improve not only their daughters’, wives’, sisters’, and co-workers’ lives, but their own lives, as well.

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