Taking the next step in a global movement
The world celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8. In honour of the occasion, my Facebook and Twitter feeds were flooded with posts from women uplifting and reminding one another about the importance of feminism and women’s rights.
Scrolling through the many posts, I felt positivity radiating off of my screen. It made me feel good to live in a time and place where women can openly make public statements about the importance of feminism and demand equal treatment. However, the more I scrolled the more I became aware of the fact that an underwhelming amount of men were doing the same.
This is not to say that many of these men do not believe in the content of the posts shared by women, but maybe that they aren’t willing to openly state that they are feminists. I found this extremely disheartening as it seems to exemplify the idea that feminism is for women and that there is a societal stigma around male feminism.Feminism is often linked to strong women in society, whether it be female activists or celebrities utilizing their platform to raise awareness. Although this is not a misrepresentation, equating the movement only to strong females perpetuates the idea that feminism belongs only to women that seek to fight for it and benefit from it.
Strong women being vocal about feminism is extremely important, however, we need male feminists to employ the same sort of vocalization. When men speak up about feminism and women’s rights, it opens the door for other men to follow in their example. Men vocalizing and stating their feminist standpoint normalizes the idea of male feminists.
The silence of some men in this field may stem from the idea that they themselves have not experienced oppression in the ways women have and advocating publicly for such a cause may take away from the female experience. Men who identify with such feelings need to put these fears aside. Their voices in favour of the feminist movement actually ring far louder than they imagine and can influence a demographic that needs this sort of advocacy to be normalized by men themselves.
As for the men who believe in the values of feminism, but don’t openly admit to being a feminist, they need to understand that feminism is not some extreme notion pitting women against men, but rather a belief system that uplifts humanity as a whole.A society that openly embraces feminism benefits everyone. Men themselves suffer from repressive gender stereotypes that encourage masculinity to be expressed through dominance over women. They too can benefit from an equitable society.
A society that practices intersectional feminism can lead to policies that help women and families, decrease workplace harassment, challenge slut shaming, help combat violence against women and sexual assault, and decrease transphobia. Men must become the allies we need by claiming that they are feminists fearlessly, because feminism benefits us all.
Photo by Mariah Bridgeman/The Ontarion.