The Next Goal For Feminists: Men
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And if, I said, the male and female sex appear to differ in their fitness for any art or pursuit, we should say that such pursuit or art ought to be assigned to one or the other of them; but if the difference consists only in women bearing and men begetting children, this does not amount to a proof that a woman differs from a man in respect of the sort of education she should receive…
— Republic by Plato, 360 B.C.E
It’s difficult to think that the statement above was made by Socrates during an era where women’s rights was virtually unknown. Despite this progressive proposition, Socrates and his contemporaries still thought of women as inferior and the “weaker sex.”
Over the past few centuries, women have become participants in the political system, the economy, and the social fabric. Women are able to influence their governments on the local and national level, introducing legislation, passing laws, and serving justice. Women are able to participate in the economy. They can acquire jobs and earn an income that allows them to exercise financial independence and maintain high-level positions in a variety of industries. Finally, women can participate in the social fabric. Women don’t need men to own property or go out in public. They don’t have to follow arbitrary social customs that restrict them from living freely. In essence, they don’t need a patriarchy to tell them what to do.
The liberation of women has led to a redefinition of femininity. Women aren’t just gentle, caring, and delicate, they’re also strong, resilient, and powerful people who are as capable as men. The redefinition of what a woman is and what a woman can be is what has led to the success of the feminist movement. Though there are still many strides to be made, the feminist movement has definitely succeeded in freeing women from the constraints that defined them as gentle little princesses that can’t think or fend for themselves.
Social norms are annoyingly difficult to break. That’s why the feminist project is still not complete. Domestic violence, sexual harassment and abuse, rape, abortion rights, and a host of other issues still plague the feminist movement. The perpetrators of these problems are men and, generally, the solutions to these problems involve passing legislation to empower women. While this method has worked in the past, it won’t continue to work for long, especially in the developed world where women have acquired many of their basic rights through political influence. Today’s postmodern feminists of the developed world are interested in many of the issues referenced above. While legislation can be passed to, say, make these things illegal or create hotlines and clinics to help women struggling with those issues, the government cannot do much more. Rape, sexual abuse, domestic violence, catcalling, objectification of women in media: these problems are just as social as they are political. These problems extend beyond the political realm; they are embedded into the social fabric. The way modern democracies are structured, they are not meant to intrude into the social fabric; for if they did, they would exercise as much power as feudal monarchies did in Europe.
Therefore, if we are to solve the problems that postmodern feminists wish to solve, we need to understand that these problems have to be fixed on the social plane. Our body politic has already demonstrated their ineptitude to deal with these issues. Postmodern feminists will have to restructure society on a more profound level, one that extends beyond political action.
Remember how I said that men are the perpetrators of women’s problems, and the solution to these problems was empowering women through legislation? Think about that sentence. We keep trying to produce more protections, more rights, more legislation that will protect women. However, in the end, we don’t address the source of all of these problems: men.
Why are men the perpetrators? The reasons are complex and debated. Since the Neolithic Revolution, an imbalance of power between the genders has existed. Men have been the oppressors, the obstacle that women have to pass to acquire any sort of independence or liberty. As a result, men have become the enemy and their problems have been ignored by many postmodern feminists.
However, it’s worth analyzing the problems of men. From high suicide rates to depression to “bro culture”, men are in a position where they are required to be breadwinners and show aggressive and dominant behavior. Described by some as toxic masculinity, men have always been encouraged to act “tough”, be sexually promiscuous, enjoy and engage in violence, and adopt homophobic and misogynistic perspectives.
I don’t believe that men are like this by nature. However, I don’t want to say that socialization is the main reason either. There are many factors studied by anthropologists, behavioral ecologists, and sociologists that indicate that the relation between the two genders is complex, and that the suffering of men and the resultant suffering of women is perpetuated by both sides. In my next article, I hope to expound on how normative masculinity and femininity complement each other to create a vicious cycle of social norms that perpetuate misogyny, homophobia, and a sadomasochistic hierarchy between and within the various gender cohorts.
