Instantly lose followers.
Maybe the “society hates everything feminine” crew are onto something after all…
When are people going to understand that sexism does effect men and most feminists knowledge this fact.
Men only face “oppression” when they are acting feminine, which is the WHOLE POINT OF FEMINISM.
In our patriarchal society, men are the oppressors. They are only oppressed when they act as women do.
There is no such thing as misandry.
It is the hatred of femininity which causes society to look down upon men crying. It is the hatred of femininity which causes society to ignore men who are raped. It is the hatred of femininity which causes society to ignore men who are abused. NOT the hatred of masculinity.
Got it?
Women only face “oppression” when they are acting masculine, so it’s only the hatred of masculinity which causes society to deny women from voting. It is the hatred of masculinity which causes society to not want women to work. It is the hated of masculinity which causes society to not want a female leader. NOT the hatred of femininity.
Or not.
Most male oppression comes from when men are trying to act like ‘women’, yes. They have been forced into a male gender role, and they are punished if they try to escape it.
Most female oppression comes from when women are trying to act like ‘men’, yes. They have been forced into a female gender role, and they are punished if they try to escape it.
Oh look, similar gender roles exist in other cultures. Oh look, similar gender roles exist in other species. Oh look, the gender role model of sexism is the only one which fits all of the facts. Oh look, the gender role model is supported by science and evolutionary theory.
It states than the patriarchal gender binary says that men have to be masculine and women have to be feminine, because those are our ‘roles’. We face oppression to enforce those roles, and trap us within them. That’s why society has historically not liked masculine women or feminine men. That’s why they’ve been seen as wrong, and punished.
It’s absolutely nothing to do with the hatred of femininity. That’s a myth. It’s been dealt with here, here, and here. It’s fairly easy to see through once you look at the bigger picture and see how these things actually work, and how parallel they are.
Finally, men are also oppressed for being masculine. We don’t ignore battered men because we think they are feminine, like you said. We ignore them because we think that they are masculine, and so we don’t see them as needing our help. Even if we did glorify masculinity and hate femininity, that would not stop the suffering of men at either end from being misandry, just as the oppression of women for behaving as men doesn’t suddenly stop being misogyny because it’s masculinity being punished.
Got it?
To see femmephobia in our society, it’s only necessary to look at the differences between how we treat masculine girls and feminine boys. A masculine girl is a “tomboy,” likely to be approved of by her parents; there are many programs to encourage girls in sports and in the sciences, stereotypically male fields. A feminine boy is a “sissy,” likely to be bullied by other boys and by girls; there are no programs to encourage boys in dance and in the humanities, stereotypically female fields.
As we get older, masculinity continues to be more acceptable for women than femininity for men. I own boxer shorts and ties, and I have short hair; at worst I’m considered to have a mildly eccentric fashion taste. A guy who dressed in as feminine a way as I dress masculine would have Transvestic Fetishism, a clinical mental illness. Men are encouraged not to cry, because it’s girly, but women are not discouraged from getting angry because it’s masculine. As I pointed out to one of my Cool Chick friends, “if any guy tried to act as girly as we act dudely, he’d get beaten up.”
“On Femmephobia”, No, Seriously, What About Teh Menz? (via yenreb)
Basically noting that not only are these gender roles just as restrictive for men as for women, if anything men have it worse nowadays. Feminism hasn’t necessarily made the problem worse for men, but it has made the problem better for women, and so men have been left behind. As with my post about how only one gender can be a transvestite, we are much more restricted that many feminists give us credit for.
