FEMINISM!!! misandry???
Feminism = social theory or political movement which argues that legal and social restrictions on women must be removed in order to bring about equality of the sexes in all aspects of public and private life.
Can we learn the difference between the two? Please? Pretty please?
I’ve talked about this before and I will keep talking about this. It will never be too much because people think feminism and misandry are synonymous. Unfortunately.
But it’s understandable…
I would like to call myself a feminist, but I decide to go with the term “equalitarian” because at their core the two movements are aiming the same thing - equality (and equity).
Equalitarian = characterized by social equality and equal rights for all people.
Why don’t I call myself a feminist? Because the movement has drifted far away from equal rights and removing social restrictions. Okay, not the feminism itself, but some feminists. Today their motto seems to be “Men are Pigs” and the movement is associated with women who display an immense amount of hate towards men aka MISANDRY, not feminism.
Yes, for centuries we lived in a patriarchal society (and in some cases we still do) and that was and is not okay at all. The structure sprung from the ancient days and in a way I can understand why. I’d argue that patriarchy was actually born as a way to protect women because our immune system, for example, is often weaker than that of men. This is a fact, not misogyny. So, in order to protect us, men thought it was better to keep us away from public life, at home where we were mostly safe from predators, viruses and so on.
In Ancient Greek epics, women were extremely important. They were basically catalysts and keepers of balance. Without them, society was lost. And above all, Athena, a woman is the goddess of wisdom or Artemis - goddess of hunting.
At some point, however, women became property. Women were abused and taken advantage of, they were denied basic rights. These things are still true in some countries. Respecting women became oppressing women. That’s what society understood at that time and that’s how it acted. It’s never about an individual, it’s about a behaviour that became toxic and it perpetuated generation after generation.
Then women started making their voice heard. Mary Wollstonecraft - Mary Shelley’s mother - was talking about women and education in the late 1700s. Female artists rise. Stories about strong women are written. Votes for women. I love early feminism. But women got angrier when men ignored them. The movement was being driven by anger - misandry and even misogyny towards women who were not part of the movement.
The Yellow Wallpaper is a so-called feminist short story. The story is valuable in a discussion about mental health and treatments. The female protagonist suffers from post-partum depression (referred to as hysteria) and her husband, a doctor, tells her that she is not sick (because she was not physically sick) and that she just needs to rest (that was the known treatment for hysteria). Is she treated incorrectly because she is a woman? No. We are treating common colds with antibiotics. It’s the same idea. It’s an issue of the medical system (which, indeed, predominantly analyses men), but there’s no way I can see this as an aggressor - victim situation - as feminist critique suggests.
Feminism seems to be going in the same direction as patriarchy. A part of society understood it as misandry and acts like that. It’s never about an individual, it’s about a behaviour that becomes toxic and it perpetuates generation after generation. However, we are generations away from the oppression of men and I hope humanity is mature enough to understand what’s going on before it’s too late.
For now, keep in mind - next time you talk about feminism and find yourself spreading hate towards men it’s called misandry and we need to learn to distinguish it from feminism. Feminism is about equality and equity.
Photo found on Google https://womenyoushouldknow.net/feminism-new-f-word/
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