Is there anything more effeminate than a male feminist? I say no.
Via Guardian:
As a proud male feminist, I believe it’s important for men to rally around the feminist movement to provide support and to act as an example for other men to follow. So it confuses me that at university a shockingly large number of male students I speak to refuse to apply the term to themselves, instead being evasive and avoiding such an empowering title.
I often encounter negative reactions when declaring myself a male feminist at university.
Before visiting an open forum recently, entitled “The F Word: Is feminism still relevant?” at the University of Warwick, I invited a friend to come with me. He sniggered and said: “Why would you go to a talk on feminism. You’re a guy!”
I find this attitude among male students worrying. The way we act now shapes how we will go on to live our lives in the future. And where does the idea that men cannot be feminists come from? Perhaps it stems from male panic, that, foolishly, male students worry they may lose power and opportunity in a world of feminism.
Perhaps guy students are embarrassed to align themselves with a word that lexically alludes to female-centrism. Maybe they’re worried about feeling emasculated.
But feminism simply means you believe in equality; it certainly doesn’t mean you become any less “manly”.
I think the main reason so few male students identify as feminists is because of the spreading virus of lad culture at university. Lad culture is the idea that overt acts of masculinity prove some form of superiority over others.
The reality is that lad culture is a prominent part of university life. Club nights often encourage the sexualisation and degradation of women through dress code, and lad values tell male students it’s important to get drunk, pull women and act like a noteworthy lad.