Tuesday 14 May 2013

When Male Feminists/Allies Aren't

By: Liberate Zealot

I'm so sick of these "feminist" men who in attempting to recruit more men to feminism start telling women feminists how to feminism, or what language we should use, or the proper tones and measures to take to end patriarchy/kyriarchy.

Male feminists/allies should be attempting to turn their places feminist.  They should discuss feminism and bring feminism to men.

But in doing so they don't get to declare the death of "women's issues".
Or say the male hierarchy should/will be the main factor in ending patriarchy.
Or claim it's necessary to make feminism more appealing and comfortable for men.
Or co-opt and rebrand feminist/women's terms to appeal to men.

They don't get to take feminist theory (built and centered around women) or issues that primarily target women and other uterus havers and re-name and re-center it around (cis)men. Those actions are not the actions of a feminist/ally, but a perpetuation of the patriarchy.

I have absolutely no patience for these types of men.  Especially when they speak as "accredited" feminists/allies and representatives of feminist/women's orgs.  I'm not going to waste my time "educating" them and providing a detailed break-down of why that they're saying/writing is patriarchal.   They obviously have the resources to learn why such behavior is inappropriate.  If they cared enough about dismantling their male privilege they would attempt to do so, instead of glorifying in their high brow version of WATM.

If you can't handle something being woman centered, where the primary actors of change are women, then you'e not a feminist/ally. And if you think the only way to appeal to a certain group of men is centering feminism around them, then you're failing, because you're not creating allies, you're creating in-group oppressors.

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