The Thinking ‘Kat: Feminism
Down the years, I have written a lot of material about feminism. The movement to ensure better standards of equality for women has seen a lot of chances, and a lot of challenges, and there are differing opinions within feminism as to what the aims are. I may visit some of that in the future.
I have also had a number of arguments on the subject. Most of these have been over at the Coalition of the Brave website, where my views and opinions earned me the wrath of MGTOWs and MRAs, acronyms I will explain later on. Suffice to say, discussions around women’s rights can heat the blood, so to speak, and there’s a lot of passionate debate out there. In fact, it’s difficult to know where to begin, but begin we must, so let’s get to it…
Defining Feminism
According to the Britannica Dictionary, feminism is defined as ‘the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes. Although largely originating in the West, feminism is manifested worldwide and is represented by various institutions committed to activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.’ Under this umbrella there are different forms of feminism, and some of them reinterpret these goals.
For example, radical feminism holds to the idea that society needs to be completely reorganised, with any and all power structures granting men power other women requiring dismantling. Liberal feminists argue that women should have the same social, economic and political power as men. I guess a simpler way of defining these two forms of feminism is that liberal feminists seek equality within the system, and radical feminisms seek equality by destroying the system.
In some cases, there are feminists who want absolutely nothing to do with men at all, or they will argue that feminism ideology cannot be achieved through the involvement of men. Other feminists will argue that men need to be engaged with, in order to shift perceptions and achieve change.
So, already you can see there are differences in approaches, and even philosophy.
Don’t we have equality already?
Some might argue that in general terms, we already have equality of the sexes. Women are free to pursue the same careers and opportunities as men in most western cultures. There remain parts of the world where this picture is very different, and modern feminist beliefs clash with traditional cultural beliefs. In some countries women are very-much second class citizens, and changing this is very difficult, due to deep, traditional dogma.
Even in the west, there are still plenty of reasons for feminism to remain an active movement. Whilst the gender pay gap has decreased steadily in the UK, it still remains. There is still a gender pay gap in the USA. This is true for much of Europe as well. It is rather absurd to pay people differently for the same work, based on their genitalia, but here we are in 2023, and this is still the case.
There also remains a lot of latent misogyny and entitlement. According to this article, four out of five victims of stalking are women, and men are more likely to be the ones doing the stalking. Men are more likely to be randomly aggressive to women on the street (something brought home to me in vivid detail, when my wife was randomly screamed at by a male teenager, for doing nothing more than walk by him). Women remain considerably more likely to be victims of sexual assault, and men are overwhelmingly the perpetrators.
With these facts in mind, it is clear there is certainly a need for feminism, so why do some people resist the idea that feminism is necessary?
The Opposition
I referenced MGTOWs and MRAs earlier on. These groups tend to be passionately opposed to feminism, but what are these groups, and why are they against feminism?
MGTOW stands for ‘men going their own way’. What has often happened is that man feels wronged by women in some way, and they declare their intent to not have any involvement with the opposite sex. In my experience, MGTOWs speak of having nothing to do with women, but in practice want women to listen to them, and be available to them on their terms. MRAs are ‘men’s rights activists’, who rarely if ever actually seek to look after men’s rights.
The best – or worst, depending on your point of view – of my experiences with MGTOWs was via the Coalition of the Brave. You can see a ‘conversation’ with them here (I should add a content warning, considering his tenor, statements and language), and another ‘discussion’ here. There was a lot of rage here, and in my view, so much of it was horribly misplaced. This is largely because MGTOWs and MRAs have no understanding of the root of the problems they complain of.
You see, these groups believe feminism is about demeaning men. They speak of a culture of favouritism within family courts, which historically sees women win most custody battles. They cite how men tend to do the more dangerous jobs. They note that men are more likely to commit suicide. What none of them usually consider is ‘why’. They have collectively had a kneejerk reaction to feminism, as though somehow these long-term, historic problems are the fault of feminism. Instead, these problems are down to the very things feminism opposes, which is stereotypical gender roles.
Family courts tend to award women custody not because of feminist influence, but because the traditional, patriarchal view is women make better caregivers. It’s true that men tend to do the more dangerous work, but it’s also true that women have historically been barred from certain fields of work, and at one point, weren’t allowed to have jobs at all. Again, this is due to old-fashioned expectations, something feminism opposes. As for male suicides, why aren’t MRAs doing more to encourage men to speak up and speak out about what is troubling them? Why is this anything to do with feminism?
Let’s leave this post with some places that can offer support to women. Firstly, the following link was provided to me via email, from The Online Protection Alliance. The Empowering Internet Safety Guide for Women offers guidance and ideas to women (and men can use these tools too) to protect their identities and stay safe on social media. There is also a resource to be found here, for anyone who needs help escaping from domestic violence, with contact numbers with a global reach.
There you have it. You have my thoughts on feminism.
