http://www.theguardian.com/education/mortarboard/2013/jun/20/why-i-started-a-feminist-society

This article clearly depicts the continued need for feminism today. It was a very frustrating read, seeing the lack of support that these brave young women received in their fight for women’s equality. It also makes me feel that a very important task in the feminist struggle is to bring more males aboard. Many say that women don’t need man’s help, because we aren’t weak little sheep that need to be protected, we need to fight for our own rights. I feel that this is a very polarizing way of looking at women’s struggle, and that it can be a little destructive to the struggle as well, making our gender an island instead of understanding our connectedness with the rest. I think that often (such as in this article) it is men who stand in the way of women’s success in campaigns such as this one, and if there were more men who identified as feminists, then these kinds of campaigns (headed by women) would see greater success. I think that women’s issues are also men’s issues and this is why men are essential in our fight, because it isn’t only women who suffer from living in a patriarchal society, although we certainly are the key victims. I think it is evident that both genders would prosper from living in a world where men and women could mutually respect one another and be treated as equals.

Every man has a mother, many have sisters, wives, and female friends that they care about and want to see thrive in their lives, not raped, sexually harassed, abused, or with eating disorders because society has made them feel inadequate. This is why in our struggle as feminists, it makes me so happy when I hear a man openly say he is a feminist, just as much as when I hear a woman say she is a feminist to the core. To me it seems so simple and fundamentally necessary to want equality for both sexes. I believe that the only place where we should really digress is in how this equality should be reached, in which case much dialogue and discourse needs to take place to find the right solution. But I simply don’t understand how a caring human being living in this world and seeing the crap women such as the ones from this article have had to deal with could still insist that he/she is not a feminist; does not want equality.

So for a man reading this and wondering what he can do to join the struggle, here is a thought-provoking article talking about ways men can be allies to women, along with a male-privilege checkist, that may help put things into perspective 🙂