A Masculine View on Feminism

Feminism is surely a misnomer. There are feminisms: diverse systems of thought that revolve around questions of sex and gender, oppression, and inequity. Feminisms have different understandings of basic questions—like the relationship between biological sex and social gender roles—and advocate different types of activism to address issues like gender inequality in social, economic, and political systems. Feminists share an interest in, and a dedication to, the understanding of gender inequities in societies and the remediation of those inequalities. I’m a man, and a feminist.

I’m a feminist because although I’ve never been afraid walking home alone late at night or been looked at askew in a job interview due to my sex, I believe sexism permeates every aspect of our lives. From attire, to hygiene, to course selection and careers, gender roles define our social options. As a man in a patriarchal society, I can see gender roles limiting people by ascribing them to certain categories. These categories are easy to conform to, especially when they seem as harmless as watching football with the guys. But when we don’t reflect on our actions, we act out our roles in patriarchal society in hurtful ways. I’ve found that the sexist roles people fill in situations can’t be understood before talking to the other people involved. Those conversations about the impact of gender on an interaction can reveal hurtful actions that I hadn’t noticed at the time.

How did I come to be a man and a feminist? I learned by growing up with females, watching them learn to wear make-up, walk in groups in dangerous neighborhoods, and spend time shopping instead of practicing basketball. Of the girls I saw practicing basketball, no matter how good they got, more people came to my games than to theirs. As much as our culture tries to make it seem natural for girls to care about their clothes more than their jumpshots, I know our culture pushes females in those directions.

For me, to be a feminist is not to stop here, at culture’s subtle push of females toward the kitchen, but to continue the analysis. Why was I more interested in my jumpshot than my clothes? Because, in part, my peers, teachers, and family would ask about athletics before my attire. Sexism works to naturalize these social systems, to claim they are eternal, biological, inescapable.

Being a feminist means realizing that when my mom was in high school, it was seen as biological and natural that women would wind up as teachers or nurses before they settled down to be good housewives. Nothing could seem less natural to our female peers today, who are driven to own their own businesses or to become professional athletes. Being a feminist for me means asking, “When will it be ‘natural’ for men to aspire to fatherhood, or to cry?” I don’t think it’s natural for males to dehumanize females. I think the reduction of others to gender roles and stereotypes is harmful to the abuser as well as the abused.

As I reflect on historical changes in gender roles, I wonder how they might continue to shift. Feminist activism is taking part in the shaping of those gender roles—today a woman can run for president, but she can’t walk down the street without catcalls during the day or an escort for safety at night. Women’s entrance into politics didn’t happen without activism from both genders. Men can take active roles against sexual assault, refusing to be part of groups objectifying women and helping to build a culture that rejects violence against women. While I can’t experience a female’s fear on a dark street late at night or feel the humiliation of constant judgment as a sex object, I can recognize these social problems and seek to eradicate them.

Finally, being a male feminist means realizing that gender roles define us in an interacting web. For example, while some professions have been reserved for males, males have also been excluded from fields like nursing and teaching. Nursing, for example, was a male-dominated field until the early 20th century. But since the ban on male nurses in the early 1900s, it has been a field dominated by women. Today only 6 percent of American nurses, including Greg ‘Gaylord’ Focker, are male. Similarly, only 11 percent of primary school teachers are male. Gender discrimination is not a one-way street of oppression—instead, patriarchy is a comprehensive system that affects everyone. Men are encouraged to be violent and to only express certain emotions, and discouraged from entering the ‘caring’ professions. To me, being a feminist means recognizing our social system, owning it, and seeking to treat everyone as a person, regardless of social roles and expectations. In the process, I hope we’ll wind up changing those social roles and expectations. Figuring out the best way to do this is a conversation I think everyone should join in, regardless of sex.

The author is a Columbia College junior majoring in ecology, evolution, and environmental biology.