"Don't allow men who hate women to define feminism as women who hate men" - John Marcotte
This is one of those trends that you wish had crashed and burned long ago. We only shutter at the realization that it has gained this much momentum. As I was scrolling through my Twitter account I came across this particular tweet:
I was literally taken aback, you know? I thought "this is 2015 man, come on." How can narrow-minded things like this still be circulating around (especially with over 500 retweets). Well, naturally I thought this was some parody account meant to mock how fragile masculinity can be at times, but I soon found out that wasn't the case.
Not only was this not the MAIN account to this movement, but the original account is backed with over 1 million followers. They consider themselves a parody account meant to highlight just how outrageous the feminist movement is. Although the account shares "jokes" about issues such as sexism and sexual assault, they still insist in being a parody movement account as a veil for how problematic they actually are.
Now, for the past year I've been ignorant of this movement and just how much it is geared toward bashing feminism and the fight for gender equality. "Meninism" is a men's right movement that claims to campaign for men to have the same rights as women. A large part of this movement has been spurred on by social media accounts that tweet sexist and anti-feminist content.
Here's what is so wrong and frightening about the entire concept of "meninism": although men do suffer from the lack of gender equality, women, historically, have always been oppressed by various forms of misogyny. Women's history has always been written by men. Everything goes back to how masculinity, as a concept throughout history, has failed both men and women.
This account and idea of "meninism" has only fueled the fight in favor of anti-gender equality and further perpetuates gender stereotypes. In all honestly, I feel like none of these people have spoken to a feminist and opened and honest dialogue.
First of all, almost all of the tweets that the Meninist account posts and other relating material deal with romantic/sexual situations between men and women. All the tweets are almost exclusively about that.
What men don't seem to understand about feminism is that it already fighting against all these issues. For example, the tweet above. There's a reason men are expected to pay for dinner and open doors for women. See, women have always been seen as the fairer sex so, therefore, that translated into the most incompetent. For years, women have been discouraged from working and even now, from getting paid the same as men do. I don't know, maybe we should do something about this and maybe women can take you out for a nice meal every now and then.
There are PLENTY of these tweets still out there. This movement only adds to the misconception that feminism equates to a man hating craze (which is not the case). Don't get me wrong, it is perfectly okay to criticize feminism in itself; it is completely possible. There are various forms of feminism, and each are expressed differently. Some more problematic than others. However, this doesn't take away the fact that feminism fights for both men and women and points out that all of men's issues go back to misogyny.
What really sets me on edge on this whole idea of "meninism" and this failed attempt at fighting for men's rights is that fact that once again, women are told to stay on the sidelines. That women have no right to point out their own oppression and inequality in a society that values men more than women. People, men especially, fail to see what feminism truly is and who it is fighting for. It fights for all the women in the world who are still beaten, raped and verbally assaulted for the simple fact that they are women. It also fights for men who wish to be something outside the periscope of an overly masculine, testosterone ridden idea that men themselves have constructed. To something so basic as a man showing emotion and being able to do it without being called a "wimp" or something far more offensive.
The "meninist" hashtag seeks to criticize feminism through parody, but unfortunately, all it does is demonstrate that people still don't know what feminism is and reaffirms why we need the feminist movement.
