What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry

melancholic romantic comic cynic. bi & genderqueer. fantasy writer. sysrae on ao3.

Anonymous asked: Am a big Joss Whedon fan, Firefly was utterly beautiful, the Avengers not so much. Anyway, Joss identifies himself as a feminist and there certainly are feminist themes in his work. But I wonder, can a man be feminist? And by that I mean is it possible for man to truly understand the nature of sexism and how best to combat it?

If feminism wants to be intersectional - and it should be, because otherwise it’s meaningless - then saying that men can’t be feminists because they don’t experience the same sort of discrimination women do is inherently contradictory, because ‘women’ are not a monolith, and we don’t experience discrimination in a universal way. I can no more claim to speak representatively about the experiences  of black women or transwomen than a gay man could claim to speak representatively about the experience of being me. Any species of feminism that’s primarily concerned with juxtaposing false notions of female homogeneity with similarly false notions of male homogeneity is not a feminism I’m interested in. Feminism is - should be - an intersectional conversation, and the minute we start excluding people from the movement on the basis of their experiences not fitting with our own is the minute it becomes worthless.

The only universal in the fight against discrimination is the need to shut up and listen to people whose experiences are different to yours, and - in instances where your social privilege is greater than theirs - to make space for them to be heard. I can’t speak for all people, but I can listen to them, I can support them, and I can learn from them. Whatever your gender, if you’re willing to do that, and to accept that your opinions and experiences don’t negate the opinions and experiences of others simply by virtue of being yours, or being familiar, then you can be a feminist.

  1. fozmeadows posted this