In an essay published by Cosmopolitan Friday, Orange is the New Black and How to Get Away With Murder star Matt McGorry explained how he became one of the leading male advocates for feminism.
He revealed that Emma Watson's speech to the United Nations last fall that introduced the He For She initiative inspired him to learn more about women's rights. Since then, he has used his social media heft for good (almost 350,000 Twitter followers), highlighting the inequalities both big and small between men and women.
I'm not sure when McGorry first captured my attention with his thoughtful, often hilarious, tweets. I'm extremely devoted to feminism (I've gotten "hardcore feminist" more than once), and I try desperately to educate others on both the meaning of the term and the goals of those leading the cause. So I must admit I was a bit jealous of how easily McGorry seemed to make feminism accessible and, well, fun.
Exhibit A:
He received my full support, though, when he shared this image on Facebook and Twitter and brought massive mainstream attention to his efforts:
By taping images of Miley Cyrus and Chrissy Teigen's nipples, banned by Instagram in photos posted by the women, onto his own, Instagram-approved nipples, McGorry threw his full support behind the #FreeTheNipple movement.
His further explanation of the image summed up much of his belief in feminism. "It’s one piece of the puzzle of creating deep change in the way our society objectifies women and creates these different standards for men and women (and other genders)," McGorry wrote. "At the heart of it, it’s simply about gender equality and equal rights."
In the Cosmopolitan essay, McGorry touched on his enthusiasm for learning more about feminism and social issues. He often shares his excitement on social media for new pieces of information he picks up. Recently, he tweeted about the addition of the term "intersectional feminist" to his Twitter biography after reading Girl Meets World actress Rowan Blanchard's essay about "white feminism."
He's also not afraid to confront trolls and ignoramuses who argue with him. After one Twitter user told him that feminism is "women that are against every natural thought men have because of hormones," (a tweet that has since been deleted) he responded bluntly.
Perhaps the best thing about McGorry is that he understands his privilege, something many people struggle with. He acknowledges in his essay that as a white, cisgender male, he is under no obligation to deal with social issues, like feminism and racism, head on. The fact that he chooses to use his position of relative power to spread a message of equality, fairness, and tolerance, a message that an alarmingly enormous amount of people do not want to hear, is refreshing and comforting.
McGorry recognizes that feminism is not a women's issue. It is a human issue. And as much as I would like to argue that the voice of an average woman like me should carry far enough to spark change, at this point in time, it doesn't. I can't wait for the day we don't need to fight for our rights, let alone have men fight for us. But in the meantime, it's nice having Matt McGorry remind us that there are good guys supporting us and standing by our sides.
