Can men be feminists?
In this paper I will be focusing on whether men can be feminists viewing that men have never been in the shoes of a woman and maybe carefree of issues to women, but now as feminism is spreadingthroughout the world the question raises as to whether men are willing to share their mainstream with their female partners and become active feminists.Any movement for social justice would be doing itself no favors if it deliberately excluded its own supporters from the ranks. Consequently, men can and should become feminists because men do not need to support feminismas afavor to women rather they need to join this movement to improve their own lives as well. I am putting forward the idea that men can definitely become feminists if they can unlearn harmful patriarchal ideas, can challenge their male privileges and use their powers for the right cause and also by empowering women that will eventually reduce the burden on them and will be beneficial for them but thisalso demands an attitude of openness towards men from women.
Ellen Grigsby talks about feminism in terms of gender equality in political, cultural and economic systems and rejects patriarchal systems although these differences have been often held up to legitimacy and justifiability by numerous religions, cultures, and traditions. For example, Islamic Theology is often interpreted as female subordination to men which has played a major role in undermining the status of women. In various cultures, women are held to be detrimental to men and it is believed that women seeking education or pursuing careers are selfish and destroy the family. Liberal feminists believe that John Locke’s concept of basic freedom is not applicable to women and women are believed to be emotionally frail and irrational. (Grigsby 2002)
Patriarchal ideas have been deeply ingrained in the minds of men and these ideas are passed on as part of culture and tradition.Patriarchy teaches us that a woman’s value is mostly in relation to the role she plays for a man. Patriarchy has placed men at the top of the social hierarchy and has validated their ideas and concerns while women have been silenced, questioned, doubted, and invalidated for centuries and their ideas are not heard or practiced. Thismisogynistic mentality is in some places conformed by women who have accepted this as it is. To be feminists men need to interrogate their position of privileges. We need to modify the role of protectors assigned to men which serve to reinforce the patriarchal roles. This is exhibited in cases of Honor Killings where the societal codes of honor define the boundaries of acceptable behaviors for women and any attempt to go out of these boundaries results in severe forms of violence in the name of honor. This violence is aimed to punish those women who try to seek independent choice or defy their societal or family expectations. Hence, men need to be a part of this struggle and indeed, they probably bear more of the responsibility for ending the oppression of women since patriarchal men have been the main perpetrators of that very oppression. Thus we firstly need to challenge these male dominancy ideas by promoting feminism and a culture of collective excellence and proper accountability systems for violence.
To practice equality in its true terms we need to disassociate certain ideas from feminism. We do not need to push down men to bring up women but we need to bring them to equal status. To win this battle for respect and equal rights women need to push aside their biases that men can never be feminists and they need to engage men in this battle.