Feminism is a word that some people wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole. Though it is sometimes perceived as a unilateral campaign against men, women’s rights and gender equality groups are increasingly presenting it as a movement in which people of all genders can be involved. Many scholars, activists, and student leaders are coming to redefine the term. Many of these are men.
“As a guy, I’m happy to be a feminist,” says Hugo Van Vuuren ’07, a workshop leader at the Office of Sexual Response and Prevention and the co-founder of MenSpeakUp, a website that promotes gender equality. “All it means is that you believe in equal rights.”
MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT FEMINISM
Many men are reluctant to self-identify as feminist even though they support women’s issues, says Susan B. Marine, director of the Women’s Center and assistant dean of student life.
“Men hold onto the assumption that feminists are man-haters, that there’s no way to be pro-women without being anti-men,” she says. “We need to show that it’s not just a women’s movement so that men can feel willing to sign on.”
Marine explains that part of the aversion to self-identifying as feminist has to do with misconceptions surrounding the term, partially perpetuated by feminists themselves.
Van Vuuren explains men’s varying involvement with a bell curve model, with one end representing males who objectify women, including rapists and misogynists, and the other side featuring men who are overtly and actively involved in feminist advocacy.
While these two poles often attract the most attention, Van Vuuren suggests that most men lie in the middle.
These men support women but do not publicly vocalize their sentiments, indicating that more men care about women’s issues than meets the eye, but few engage in these discussions. These are the kind of men Van Vuuren hopes will transition to the side of visible advocacy.
A PRIVILEGED PERSPECTIVE
Though men can approach the feminist movement with intentions to help, they can often end up assuming dominant roles at the expense of women’s empowerment.
“Men are socialized to be the leader and be in charge, and women are socialized to let men do that,” says Chris Linder, director of the Office of Women’s Programs and Studies at Colorado State University, adding that this can lead to a sense of superiority among men.
Linder conducted a study to examine women’s experiences collaborating with men in the feminist movement. While she notes that men and women successfully co-facilitated workshops, including discussions of sexual assault, she also observed drawbacks when men crowded out the very women they were trying to help.
“Men have a general lack of awareness around their privilege,” Linder says. “They are not aware of dominant identities, so they inadvertently take up extra space.”
SOCIAL PERMISSION
