It is 2017. In this modern day and age, there are few individuals who believe that women should not be viewed as equals to men. While there is not reams of active men in the feminist movement, Michael Kimmel points out that there is in fact “a growing number of profeminist men around the country,” (Kimmel 568, 2004). Men commonly do not understand feminism, but should those men who do be allowed to call themselves feminists? I agree with Kimmel when he answers no men cannot be feminists due to lack of experience and ever-present benefiting from systematic patriarchy, and should instead use the term pro-feminist.
In Kimmel’s piece titled “Men and Women’s Studies: Premises, Perils, and Promise” he uses the term “pro-feminist men” rather than “feminists”. This difference in terms …show more content…
The term pro-feminist should be used for men because without having the same direct experience with oppression, men are unable to fully understand the importance of gender equality and the damage of gender oppression. In her piece “Oppression”, Marilyn Frye describes how females experience oppression by way of “the living of one’s life is confined and shaped by forces and barriers which are not accidental or occasional and hence avoidable, but are systematically related to each other,” (Frye 4, 1983), and this is something unexperienced by men. Men will never experience the same ‘road blocks’ because of their gender that women do. Kimmel says that men should adopt a feminist view and practices but “feminism as an identity also involves the felt experience of that in equality. And this men do not have,” (Kimmel 570). Without living the same oppression, however subtle it may be for some women, men cannot be feminists; they cannot be the at the centre of the battle for equality because they are not central in facing the oppression that women face in the real
In Kimmel’s piece titled “Men and Women’s Studies: Premises, Perils, and Promise” he uses the term “pro-feminist men” rather than “feminists”. This difference in terms …show more content…
The term pro-feminist should be used for men because without having the same direct experience with oppression, men are unable to fully understand the importance of gender equality and the damage of gender oppression. In her piece “Oppression”, Marilyn Frye describes how females experience oppression by way of “the living of one’s life is confined and shaped by forces and barriers which are not accidental or occasional and hence avoidable, but are systematically related to each other,” (Frye 4, 1983), and this is something unexperienced by men. Men will never experience the same ‘road blocks’ because of their gender that women do. Kimmel says that men should adopt a feminist view and practices but “feminism as an identity also involves the felt experience of that in equality. And this men do not have,” (Kimmel 570). Without living the same oppression, however subtle it may be for some women, men cannot be feminists; they cannot be the at the centre of the battle for equality because they are not central in facing the oppression that women face in the real