I’ve had this idea of a blog post whirring round my head for the past couple of days. I’m not sure it’ll be that finely crafted but here goes. I’ll start with a confession; I’m a bit of a feminist.
I’ve been spurred on to out myself following my recent BritMums Live experience. Regular readers will know I had the honour of speaking at a session on the Saturday called How I do it, success stories from the front line.
I was part of a panel featuring three other fantastic bloggers; Transatlantic Blonde, Potty Diaries and Spencer of Dad and Proud. They are a great bunch and I strongly recommend you check out their blogs.
As it happens, I was at first asked to speak at the New Feminism session which took place the previous day. Unfortunately I was unable to attend on the Friday but whenever possible I was checking my twitter timeline to see what was being said as the debate progressed.
I noticed a few tweets from people saying they had concerns writing about the subject. The gist seemed to be they worried about being criticised or drawn into a nasty debate.
I can sympathise with this view. Anyone who has read my recent Huffington Post blog will know that I attracted the ire of the radical feminist movement (or at least two card carrying members). Even if I say so myself, my article was well balanced yet the responses were several tea pots short of a hat stand. I mean seriously, skip my blog and go straight to the comments. As much as I disagree with these comments though, I’ll defend the author’s right to say them.
I make no secret of my masculist tendencies. It’s what got me blogging in the first place. The truth is I don’t think you can be a masculist without being a feminist and vice versa. I like to think the modern feminist movement is generally positive and encourages men to work in partnership with women to achieve equality for all.
So where am I going with all this? During my session at BritMums Live I spoke about the importance of writing opinion pieces. I think well written, well argued, balanced opinion pieces are what make blogging fun. Released from the leash of a large publishing house, us bloggers can, within reason, write what we wish and reach large and influential audiences. Nobody should feel they can’t write about a subject because they have fears about attracting criticism, especially one as important as feminism.
I cannot help but feel that what I have written here is more a stream of consciousness than a fine piece of literature. I’d be interested to hear what you think tough. Were you at the New Feminism session? Did people feel it was a hot topic that must be handled carefully? Are you a male feminist and proud or female masculist and out? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.
5 thoughts on “Embrace your inner feminist”
I wasn’t at BritMums but if you had delivered this as a speech I would have applauded. I totally agree that being a masculist and feminist goes hand in hand. I’m don’t want to be held back or excluded because I am a man so why would want a woman to experience the same difficulty? It’s very black and white for me.
Posted that too quickly! And yes we should be vocal about this. I’m happy to tell anyone I’m a feminist.
Thanks Andy. Shame you weren’t at BritMums. You were missed!
Just leaves me to say “hurrah” another aftershave wearing feminist!
Couldn’t agree more. I have recently started a blog at http://www.livesofman.com (it is only days old) and to be honest this type of discussion is something that I am apprehensive about as it will no doubt arise…once my site has some content :)….hopefully I am unnecessarily concerned.
I would probably class myself as a feminist, although that in itself would cause difficulties for many within the women’s movement, but not for me. I recognise that there are many injustices in the world and that negative statistics are generally not in favour of men. But I am passionate about equality and social justice which puts me in a position of advocating on behalf of women a decent amount of the time…not by design, just because it is the right thing to do.
I think a major problem area in this field is generational, so much has changed in a relatively short period of human history, to the point where some people have been left behind un-evolved and others have been completely submerged in the new dispensation…so there is a clash……meaning when people are critical of ‘men’ as a general mass it tends to alienate those of us with opposable thumbs, open minds and genuine equality as a guiding principle. Personally I think progressive views coming from men can and have been a real asset to the women’s movement and modern feminism. If real continued progress is the goal, they can be the influencers for the changes still required, especially with the audiences who need it most and who are likely to respond negatively to the type of viewpoints illustrated perfectly in the comments section you linked to and less starkly and more subtly in some mainstream commentators.
…and on those comments specifically, an internet meme with meaning springs to mind: “Never read the bottom of the internet”….which in this case would also include this 🙂
Thanks for commenting. I agree with pretty much all you say and will be checking out your blog.
And never, ever read to the bottom of the Internet!