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Should men describe themselves as feminists, if they are supportive of feminism?

Orang Utan said:
I would feel a bit uncomfortable describing myself as such, but is it unwise to feel this?
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Depends why you're saying it, and who to. :)
Personally, I find describing on a case-by-case basis that I support feminists and/or feminisms usually makes the point better,if somewhat more wordily.;)
 
ViolentPanda said:
Depends why you're saying it, and who to. :)
Personally, I find describing on a case-by-case basis that I support feminists and/or feminisms usually makes the point better,if somewhat more wordily.;)
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Yeah, if I'm asked I'll say I'm a feminist (I used to say pro feminist, but dropped that habit as it seemed a bit precious), but I don't go around announcing it. Or wearing t shirts.
 
I apologise to people reading and who may have got the wrong end of the stick:I'm fully behind all the legal rights that feminism has provided. I think that this legality has become feminism. So to be a feminist is now no longer a threat but a a promise. Feminist means something. I think it means this. Nothing.

Just being a popup cafe is enough.
 
frogwoman said:
I think it often seems like blokes are trying too hard when they say that tbh. And yep what story said. I love when men declare themselves feminists and proceed to tell me how to be a feminist:D

No real objection tho, but a man really doesnt have to declare himself one imo.
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My first experience (way back in the era of flared trousers) of men calling themselves feminists, was of sleazes trying to get a shag off of the back of pretending to support "womens' lib". My second experience of blokes doing so was the so-called "new man" phenomenon, which was a 180-degree turn on my first experience, but just as creepy in some ways, as some proponents appeared to go "above and beyond the call of duty" in policing their male privilege.
 
Vintage Paw said:
idk, language is tricky. You get some who say language is just words and we shouldn't let it hold power over us, but that's ridiculous because it clearly already does, and people who say that invariably are doing so from a position of power they are trying to protect. But it's nuanced, there's no rulebook that says "always use this reasoning, never that." All we can do is keep negotiating the bumpy terrain as best we can.
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Power always exercises influence over how language-in-use is represented, most frequently by modifying the context in which specific language has been used, and I'm not sure it's quite as nuanced as all that, given how obvious some of the attempts to manipulate discourse are.
But yes, I think that people need to "keep on truckin' ", and keep on knocking back power's attempt to appropriate our languages and our struggles, IMO.
 
butchersapron said:
I apologise to people reading and who may have got the wrong end of the stick:I'm fully behind all the legal rights that feminism has provided. I think that this legality has become feminism. So to be a feminist is now no longer a threat but a a promise. Feminist means something. I think it means this. Nothing.

Just being a popup cafe is enough.
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a lot of people won't understand what you mean by that.
 
Fez909 said:
"A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women."

Can't see anything wrong with a man describing himself as one of those.
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The problem with most dictionary descriptions is that they're threadbare - they don't describe the sheer (sometimes conflicting) diversity of the elements that constitute feminism, or the diversity of class, ethnicity etc of those who describe themselves as feminist.
 
Orang Utan said:
a lot of people won't understand what you mean by that.
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During the war,feminism looked like it could break capital rather than it breaking feminism. It lost. Now we get rights rather than wages. And we get told the result, our defeat,is what feminism is.

What's changed?
 
Fez909 said:
Do you disagree with that definition? How would you describe a feminist?
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Better to ask "what describes a feminist" or "what is the most usual representation of feminists and feminism", because that way you get a picture not of what how feminists might envision feminists, but how we as a people have feminists represented to us, and how many of us choose to perceive them.
 
el-ahrairah said:
i describe myself as a feminist and believe i am one. to me, feminism is the belief that women have been culturally, socially, and legally discriminated against and that our society is still intrinsically anti-women in many ways; and that this needs to be changed by whatever means necessary.

however, not calling yourself a feminist because you don't want to take over women's struggles whilst still not being a massive dickhead is much much better than all the men who call themselves a feminist but don't translate that into behaviour

of course, feminism is different things to different people. plenty of tories describe themselves as feminists but that doesn't extend to working class women's equality. plenty of people believe that feminism is about choices, so that you should be free to choose which of the patriarchy's chains you adopt and pretend that its a free choice.

but to me, if you don't call yourself a feminist without a good explanation then you're a wrong un! if you say "i'm not a feminist" you're basically saying "i am opposed to any and all of the strands of movements towards social equity for women, and don't believe that there is any need for those movements" which, IMO, is factually incorrect, morally wrong, and deeply suspect.
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I don't declare "I'm not a feminist", I just don't see the point in saying "I'm a feminist" when without further explanation those three words can be taken to mean so many different things from a bloke.
 
Johnny Vodka said:
IME some men have more feminist views than some women. For some odd reason, the topic of rape came up in the office the other week and I was quite surprised by the views of some of my female colleagues ('many victims make it up because they regret sex the next morning' kind of views).
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Funny how your colleagues always voice opinions so much in concordance with your own views.
 
ViolentPanda said:
Except that what it actually means is an ongoing pursuit of legal equality (rather than the achievement of it) to the exclusion of other goals that might achieve the same aims.
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In its most destructive form - the form exemplified by the likes of Harriet Harman - it means something like equality of inequality, with all the assumptions inherent to that, primary among them the idea that the rich have the right to be rich.
 
ViolentPanda said:
Funny how your colleagues always voice opinions so much in concordance with your own views.
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i'm unsurprised by that. he's probably working in some hyper-masculine capitalist loadsamoney shithouse that you have to be a desperately amoral and deeply conservative to survive.

of course, by my standards that covers almost every job in england, but there you do.
 
yes men absolutely can describe themselves as feminists, and as a female feminist I wish that more of them would.

I can't see any contradiction, because feminism is a worldview which can be (in a better world would be) shared by anyone with a brain, a pulse and a sense of empathy. It's absolutely possible for men to be passionate feminists - just as it's possible for former public schoolboys to be passionate Communists or for anyone of any class to be a passionate socialist.


that is all.
 
You can't be a dad to a young girl without thinking about female roles in society. A lot.

http://www.amightygirl.com/

This website is brilliant for recommending books and films with strong female characters, and have a good FB page. We haven't discussed the F word yet, but whether or not I call myself a feminist is less important than the way I interact with my daughter.
 
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