In Defense of Feminism

“You can’t really be a feminist. You don’t hate men, so you wouldn’t have a reason to be.”

“Actually, the reason I’m a feminist is because of my dad.”

“You’re a feminist because you hate your dad?”

She laughed. “No. I love my dad. He was awesome when I was growing up! He made me laugh, disciplined me right, but he also treated me with respect. He always told me I could be whatever I wanted, and supported me through all the childhood dreams of being a doctor, the president, an astronaut, the works. He got me matchbox cars and Tonka trucks, Barbie dolls and tiaras, whatever I wanted, but only if I was good. He got me my first game console and played racing games with me all day! When I got older, he told me that sex was something two or more people did to have fun, but that I had to be careful because it could have consequences. He never acted patronizing about it, even though he was my father. He gave me the information I needed, and trusted me to make the right decision with it. He would always urge me to strive to be better than him, to be the best person I could be, even though I was a girl.

“He’s such a good dad, a good man, a good person, really, that I started to notice when people treated me differently because I was a girl. I really noticed when people acted like I didn’t belong because of my lady parts, or treated me like I was a cute decoration. I noticed when men treated me like I was there for their amusement, or acted like I should be sleeping with them for validation. I noticed when guys made fun of me because I was a girl, and that everyone around me thought it was normal and an okay thing to make fun of. I noticed when I didn’t have very many female characters in things I watched or read that I could look up to.

“I noticed all of these things because my dad treated me just the same as anyone else. He treated me like a person. And I wanted to be treated that way by everyone else too.”

Conspiracy Theorist At Last

I normally see myself as a pretty down-to-earth person. There’s not an awful lot that I think is by design against me, but then again, I suppose it depends on how you define “by design”. For instance, I see current sexist attitudes in my culture as arising and changing from the agricultural revolution’s new concept of “personal property” and “paternity”, so I don’t think it’s deliberate. It’s a deeply rooted behavior passed down through generations as a way that genders relate to one another. It’s fairly obvious to me that this has to stop, but it’s not intentional, at least not generally.

But the intentional misogyny of the Men’s Rights Movement has me thinking a little differently. It has me thinking that maybe powerful feminists are behind the scenes, pulling the strings. Not because men are really the ones who are oppressed – most of the “oppression” men experience actually comes out of misogyny, as the insults and shame of a man usually come out of being called a “woman”. It’s not because men are seen as utilities in society – their utility is usually seen as superior to sitting around and being an object, and they even get glory and praise for the service to the community they do, while women get ridiculed for the same services (EG – military).

No, it’s because I can think of no greater way to bring people over to feminism than to create a grassroots movement that so perfectly represents why feminism is still needed, BADLY. I mean, when feminists talk about men hating women, there the MRAs are, hating women. When feminists talk about male privilege, there the MRAs are, to exemplify what it means and how they have it. And when feminists talk about how women are constantly objectified, sexualized, put down, mocked, or otherwise not taken seriously as human beings for the crime of having a vagina, there the MRAs are, showing EVERYONE that this is the truth. They just come out of the woodwork to prove feminists right!

I’m beginning to wonder if this isn’t just an incredibly successful viral ad campaign – BECOME A FEMINIST, IT’S MORE RATIONAL THAN BEING AN MRA!