The big thing in the media world at the moment is the ever changing, always of importance, feminism. As with everything that becomes a topic of interest, people form every walk of life are jumping on the bandwagon to contribute their opinion. Imagine how pleased the suffragettes would be if they could see this, people are actually talking about the cause they dedicated their life to!

Of course, men play a hugely important part in feminism, so why don’t we let them contribute their opinion without attacking them?

I know lots of boys (or men, as I’m sure they prefer) my age who highly support the feminist cause and would, if they were female, be defined as feminists. Despite this they’re attacked for supporting it with arguments like “You don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re not a female!” I am yet to understand how this is a valid argument. We’re not allowed to oppose something we know a lot about if we’re not part of that oppressed group?

I can’t oppose people being abused because I don’t come from an abusive home?

The argument itself is counter productive, why are we telling men they can’t be feminists when we absolutely need as much support as we can get?

Lately I’m seeing a new term surface – ally. While it’s a step in the right direction of including men in this cause, it’s not quite there. Why can’t they just be feminists, the term feminism was never coined to be identified with purely by women, but rather to outline the cause of women rights.

I’ve watched a good male friend of mine be outright insulted when said he identified as feminist and told he has no right to do so. When he confronted the person saying that, they had no real reasons except that he “wasn’t a woman”. Of course he’s not a woman, thank you for pointing out that very important fact of the situation, he’s a male who supports feminism and that’s something so gravely needed within this cause!

We need them to side with us; we’ll only break through the patriarchy if we have infiltrators, men themselves, so why are we pushing them away?

Feminists have a stereotype of hating men and being female elitists. Simply to highlight this, a term from men’s right’s activist’s (which is interesting in itself, how many more rights can white cis males have?) has popped up, ‘misandry’.

I just want to emphasise the fact that this article is in no way alluding to feminists being misandrists, it’s merely to point out the lack of understanding some of them tend to have about male feminists.

Open your hearts and minds to the men who want to help us, we deserve all the help we can get.