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Duyen Nguyen

December 11, 2015

ENG 1010 – T/TH

Professor James H. Celestino

Final Argument Essay

As feminism is gaining momentum to enter its Fourth Wave, the women’s movement has

made great leaps in becoming more inclusive, not only to women of all colors and religions, but

also to men, the so-called antagonist in the feminist narrative. However, men who do support

feminism are stuck in a dilemma where their masculinity is ridiculed for being pro-feminist. It is

high time the movement shifted its focus on combating the opposite gender as a whole to making

them an ally in dismantling misogyny and male chauvinism. For one obvious reason, our society

can only function properly as long as humans of all genders work together, instead of one

specific group taking supreme reign. In that sense, feminism is a movement of equality and no

man should be ashamed of identifying himself as a feminist.

Feminism, despite its arguably discriminative name and many forms stemming from

various ideologies, at its core believes that women suffer from social disadvantages caused by

the patriarchal society, hence the need for reforming actions. Throughout its long history,

feminism has evolved into different branches underpinned by various ideologies. It is important

to define these branches as each has a different approach in solving gender inequality, ranging

from extremely radical to merely spiritual. Broadly speaking, the most recognized types of

feminism are radical, liberal, cultural, socialist, libertarian and eco feminism. Radical feminism,

as its name suggests, is usually referred to as the extreme form of feminism, which gives

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feminism as a whole a bad rap for “man-hating” or “bra-burning”. This form of feminism, as

Kathy Rudy (201) – a professor of women’s studies at Duke University – explained, tends to be

white-centered and overlook class, cultural, regional and religious struggles in the process of

promoting the superiority of women. However, she also admitted that radical feminism is what

put feminism on the cultural and political map of America. Liberal feminism, instead of focusing

on uprooting the current patriarchal society like radical feminism does, mobilizes movements to

change legislations to ensure equal footing for women in the workplace, education, and

healthcare. However, liberal feminists has also been criticized for neglecting the ideology

underpinning patriarchal oppression, as well as race and class issues (Wendell, 66). The most

inclusive branch of feminism, perhaps, is socialist feminism. Socialist feminists claim the way

men, who produce tangible goods, are rewarded much more than women, who produce

intangible goods, due to their pre-determined gender roles, in capitalism is the basis for the

oppression of women. Taking into account racial, religious and cultural issues, they believe the

obliteration of class and gender – in other words, men and women must work together as peers –

is the answer to the problem (Kennedy, 499 – 502). However, the term “socialist” and its

implication of challenging capitalism is what makes socialist feminism not as prominent as

liberal feminism in such a capitalist society like the U.S. Unlike the three branches defined

above, libertarian, cultural and eco feminism are usually non-political. They put more emphasis

on sexuality and spirituality of femininity, as opposed to masculinity, and encourage individual

change, rather than collective actions.

The history of feminism, which started as early as in the 1840s with the movement for

women’s suffrage in the US, has witnessed ground-breaking successes in revolutionizing the

social balance, leading many people, especially in the US, into believing gender equality is

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realized and/or feminism is unnecessary. However, statistics from recent research indicate

otherwise. The gender pay gap in 2012 in the US was at a whopping 18%, since professional

works in low-paying field comprises mostly of women while their male counterparts dominate

the high-paying jobs, according to statistics of the US Bureau of Labor. If statistics like one

above is too far-fetched for one to grasp the ongoing imbalance of genders in occupation, a quick

search of the word “CEO” gives one a much more visualized illustration of the matter at hand.

Unsurprisingly, almost all of the images turning up for the search query are white men, with an

ironic appearance of a Barbie Doll clad in business suit. The underlying algorithm of the search

engine in itself is not sexist. It only reflects how we constantly use the term as exclusively male-

specific. In fact, in a paper published in April 2015, a team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon

University claim Google displays far fewer ads for high-paying executive jobs … if the job

seeker is a woman (Datta, Tschantz, and Datta, 105). The research team, however, noted that

these results are affected by the audience the advertiser choose to target, which means a majority

of companies consciously prefer male applicants over female ones. Therefore, it is undeniable

that the gender pay gap and workplace gender imbalance exists.

Men, the antagonist in almost every feminist conversation, are unsurprisingly becoming

an unsung force of change in the feminist movement. The relationship between men and

feminism has always been of a complicated nature as men are both the subject and object of

critique in the feminist narrative. In an anecdote about an experience while teaching Gender and

International Human Rights at University of Denver in 2004, Laura A. Herbert (32) recounted an

encounter of a male student with feminists in her article “Taking ‘Difference’ Seriously:

Feminism and the Man Question. He identified himself as a feminist but his female friend denied

that statement since there was no way he could truly experience the struggle and oppression

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women have to face daily. In a sense, this is arguably a logical argument on the authenticity of

any man claiming to be a feminist. The ultimate goal of feminism, after all, is to advance

women’s positions in the male-dominated society; therefore, its core interests appear to be

opposite to men’s interests, or so a majority of men tend to think. Being cast as ‘the other’, and

‘the cause of the problem’, it is understandable that men would feel like being blamed and get

defensive. In reality, many men have been known to be eloquent advocates of women’s rights

since the dawn of the movement, e.g. former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, multi-billionaire

Warren Buffet, and Dalai Lama (Brougher, “I’m a Male Feminist”). Jimmy Carter, in an

interview about his new book, told the host: “There's no evidence at all that Jesus Christ did

anything except to exalt women. Never has a single word or action been alleged to him that

would deprive women from their equal or superior rights." In fact, he chose to leave the Southern

Baptist Convention when they declared that women should be submissive to their husbands,

mind you, in 2012 (Hafiz). However, these few good men account for just a small portion, while

a majority of the rest are either impervious to this matter or silenced by the perpetuated

hegemonic masculinity deeply engraved in their consciousness.

One core thing these men should notice is feminism, while aiming to promote women’s

well-being, is not absolutely against men’s interest. Certainly, there are privileges that men will

have to forfeit in order to ensure gender equality, like “the ability to use social and legal power

structures for sexual advantage and the capacity to exploit women for unpaid domestic labor”

(Crowe, 51). However, men can gain so much more in exchange for this injustice done to the

other half of the world. In cultivating a mutually respected and shared relationship with women

and challenging outdated notions of masculinity, men can explore alternative social roles that has

always been a taboo to them, as much like women are able to take on men’s roles in other

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disciplines. In this way, men can take off the load of always being strong and actually pursue

their aspiration in whichever field they are truly cut out for.

As Linn Egeberg Holmgren and Jeff Hearn (404) explained in their research titled

“Framing ‘men in feminism’”, the ‘normal’ feminist is usually thought to be a woman. Being a

man is deviant in a feminist discourse because he who claims to be feminist might only do so to

appear politically correct for a hidden agenda that does not necessarily advocate women’s rights.

Therefore, men who do identify themselves as feminist run into the problem of passing as pro-

feminist without an overt statement to avoid suspicion. In Ms. Holmgren and Mr. Hearn’s

research (408 – 411), they found a number of ways men could pass as pro-feminist with

authenticity. One way is to use self-denigrating humor to distance one’s self from pseudo-

feminists. Another way to solve this problem is men acknowledging their privileges and

shortcomings in expressing their pro-feminist position in social scenarios due to peer pressure

among other men. These men might eventually venture out to challenge notions of masculinity,

especially in terms of body image, as a form of pro-feminist expression. Sometimes, when a man

fail to pass as a genuine feminist and accept this exclusion, he can also be considered to have

already been a part of the feminist perspective, which grants him the feminist status. Overall, the

researchers concluded it was the experience and acknowledgement of gender exclusion and its

effects that lent credibility to a man’s feminist claim, rather than hollow voicing of politically

correct opinions.

Perhaps the greatest hurdle for any man in showing their support for feminism is the

traditional standards of masculinity, some of which are almost unachievable or irrelevant in our

modern society. Ask any man what being ‘manly’ means and the expected answer should be

strength, determination, ambition, rationality, objectivity, dependability, or any tribute that

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makes him the ‘leader of the pack’, or ‘the breadwinner of the family’. This is also a benchmark

expected of any man who wants to be considered successful and in control of his life. The flip

side of the coin is once such a man fails to achieve those socially constructed standards, e.g. not

earning as much as his spouse does, he might resort to violent expressions towards his loved

ones as a way to irrigate his inner stagnation. Being raised in a conservative Asian family, I am

well aware of the gender role clearly defined. My father, under the pressure of being the

breadwinner, left all of the housework and child rearing to my mother, who as the same time

wanted to aspire to be the head of the literature department of the school she worked at. A

strong-willed woman as she was, she had to set aside her ambition to take care of her family,

while being taken granted. Things got worse when she had enough and sought solace in another

man, which provoked overt anger and violence from my father. Imagine what you would feel if

your mother, daughter, girlfriend or sister had to go through such an experience.

While some men persevere under pressure, others who are less competitive, timid in

manners, and/or sharply dressed, are the subject of laments over a masculinity crisis. Their

gender expression are usually associated with femininity, and in some cases, homosexuality.

Nevertheless, masculinity is not in a crisis. The misogynistic perpetuation of an outdated

definition of gender and gender expression is the crisis. Scientific studies have shown that there

is a distinct difference in biological sex and gender. While the former is determined by

chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive structures and external genitalia, the latter is

more of an intertwined construct of sex, personal sense of self, and external expression of

identity, under social, racial, cultural and religious influences (American Psychological

Association). Masculinity and femininity, therefore, are two binaries insufficient in representing

the whole gender spectrum with myriads of variations in between. Downplaying everything in

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the middle while setting two ends of this spectrum against each other only further entrenches a

separation between entities that are supposed to co-habitat and co-operate in order to sustain a

balance essential to the survival of the human race.

A man can be as feminist as a woman can, and any man should be able to call himself a

feminist without fearing the social stigma wrongly associated with the term. This scenario is

achievable as long as we redefine gender and gender expression as a spectrum, not a couple of

binaries. As such, that will be a long leap towards deconstructing male chauvinism and misogyny

as the two main culprits dividing our humanity. In the end, feminist is just another label that one

has the right to adopt or not. The sole most important thing is men and women should, and need

to, work side by side in all spheres of our society to overcome racial, cultural and religious

barriers and head towards a sustainable society. After all, what would we do without each other?

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