Elsewhere, it was business as usual. If you could have hashtagged
“Why don’t men get a day, EH?<\/em>” then it’d have
been the global number one tag all over the internet. (They do get a day
– November
19th<\/a> – but that’s not my point here.) I’m writing
this post so that next year I can just link it every time someone tells
me feminism “isn’t needed” or is unfair to men in some
way.<\/p>\n
To the people (all of whom were men) who had to ask me what the title
of this post meant: look at almost any online article about
women’s rights or feminism. Chances are within the first few
comments you will have a man asking “What about men’s
rights?”<\/p>\n
Men perform 33% of the world’s work, earn 90% of world’s
income and own 99% of the world’s
property.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
They also suffer much less domestic violence, rape, genital
mutilation, sexual shame, sex trafficking, and have far more control
over their lives and bodies. Their options for work aren’t
limited, they are not considered to automatically have a duty to
represent their whole gender if they reach the top of a profession
or political office, and aren’t scrutinised as mercilessly if
their partner does.<\/p>\n
They don’t face becoming part of the epidemic of rape during
war, having their testimony count for half a man’s in court,
legal challenges on precisely how much they are allowed to be beaten
before it’s not acceptable, they’re far less likely to
face
being property<\/em>, victims of honour killings and acid
attacks, or living under social or legal pressure to hide their
bodies from sight (or the more familiar pressure in the UK to
expose them, provided they’re the ‘correct’
shape, if they want to be successful).<\/p>\n
Speaking as a white cis male in a first world country, if you
can’t see why feminism ‘is still needed’
globally then you haven’t tried looking for even a second.
We may have a different set of inequalities at home, but that
doesn’t mean they’re not just as pervasive and
damaging in society. Is the UK some amazing bastion of freedom
where women have no problems anymore? The
Equality and Human Rights Commission says a BIG no.<\/a><\/p>\n
Other people raised a much more valid secondary point during
International Women’s Day, which was the hesitation a lot
of men have about the
word<\/em> ‘feminism’. Even though the movement
is about seeking equality, the term
suggests<\/em> seeking female superiority to a lot of
people. It’s been debated constantly in feminist
circles, but we sometimes forget that this instinctive
mis-definition hasn’t changed in the minds of many of
the mainstream. The argument about reclaiming it (and then
making the version we want actually take root in the general
public) is a whole post on its own, and not what I want to
do here. We
know that feminism has an image problem.<\/a><\/p>\n
For our readers (of any gender) who may be in doubt, here
is my personal definition: feminism is about womens’
right to live as human beings. To make choices about their
own lives and bodies. Things which we would consider
imprisonment or torture on ‘a person’ are
inflicted on women every day, and equality is not going to
happen without a lot of effort to fight that status quo.
Reaching equality doesn’t take anything away from
men that we should not be ashamed of and glad to lose
anyway.<\/p>\n
We
haven’t<\/em> gained this balance yet in the UK,
and we’re catastrophically nowhere near it
internationally.<\/p>\n This is an Otter eating
Snowflakes. It has nothing to do with men or women, but
Steve needed a calming picture at this point. Image from
http:\/\/unizoo.exblog.jp\/12102064<\/p><\/div>\n
It’s not just the men who need to learn this. I
have several stories from female friends where it is
women<\/em> who are enforcing the partriachal norms
on other women most harshly. Everyone has a long way
to go before we get a situation which is more
equal.<\/p>\n
Can you seriously ask “What about the
men?” Get the depressing stats on
inequality: that 92% of our judges in the UK are
white men from Oxford \/ Cambridge, that…
look, this could go on forever.<\/p>\n
In Egypt (where they recently had a revolution,
with women very much involved at the front of it)
they had the parades for International
Women’s Day which have become traditional in
many parts of the world. The women in the parade
were heckled and threatened by men chanting
anti-female slogans.<\/p>\n
Men chanting against us were very furious. It
offended them that we were calling for equal
rights. … They were chanting “Down
with Women”.<\/strong>
There are reports of violence, including
sexual assaults. A comment from
Equality Now<\/strong>‘s Facebook
page:
“That Egyptian women …
grow up *expecting* to be fondled in
public as a form of intimidation is
just
gut-wrenching.”<\/em><\/p>\n
The main direction of this post will
not be new to most feminists, and
every area I’ve mentioned
deserves a huge amount of debate,
but I wanted to write something
specifically for those people who
can in all seriousness still ask
“What about the
men?”<\/p>\n
Forget that question. There are very
valid problems which are uniquely
facing men in modern society, and I
think some of them must be solved if
we are to make progress in
feminism<\/a>, but really, my
response to the people who seriously
typed that line on International
Women’s Day: stop hijacking
every single goddamn thread about
real issues with this inane
question, there’s work to
do!<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/otter-300x200.jpg?resize=300%2C200\")
<\/a>
\n– @Egyptocracy on
twitter<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n