The Art of Manliness

“Feminism has convinced men that a ’sensitive man’ is a man with no assertiveness.”

Though this may be the mainstream depiction of feminism, I seriously disagree. Most feminist scholars would say they are trying to disassociate the mandate of certain characteristics from being linked to gender- ie they think that the definition of manliness in the past has been so strict that it has paralyzed men from other characteristics that are valuable to any human. A sensitive man can certainly be assertive, but the two have been opposed historically as men have been told that to be manly they must bury their sensitivity and display only strength.

Feminists would not want a man to stop being assertive to be sensitive, all humans have the right be assertive AND sensitive- the two are not opposed inherently, only in the world we have created with gender roles. Feminists illustrate a historic reality where women and men have had to adhere to a restrictive and narrow definition of each gender role- one that could use expanding, changing and questioning so we can all be truer to who we are as individuals.

So yes, let’s please live in a world where a person (regardless of gender) can be assertive and strong, and also be able to listen and be compassionate.

persistentillusion says:

Per Wikipedia, as always, I looked up feminism and found first-wave feminism, second-wave feminism, third-wave feminism, ecofeminism, individualist feminism, post feminism, separatist feminism, radical feminism, sex positive feminism, anarcha feminism, black feminism, socialist feminism, and more.

Christina Hoff Sommers, in her 1994 book Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women, considers much of modern academic feminist theory and the feminist movement, which she says is aimed at the abolition of gender roles, to be gynocentric and misandrist.

She labels this “Gender feminism” and proposes “Equity feminism”—an ideology that aims for full civil and legal equality. She argues that while the feminists she designates as gender feminists advocate preferential treatment and portray women as victims, equity feminism provides a viable alternative form of feminism. These descriptions and her other work have caused Hoff Sommers to be described as an antifeminist by other feminists.

When you take a look at radical and separatist feminism, it is not hard to see where she is coming from.

Of course, there is always the SCUM manifesto. Valerie Solanas, the radical feminist who shot Andy Warhol in 1968, provides a famous example of misandry in her self-published SCUM Manifesto.

“As for the issue of whether or not to continue to reproduce males, it doesn’t follow that because the male, like disease, has always existed among us that he should continue to exist. When genetic control is possible — and soon it will be — it goes without saying that we should produce only whole, complete beings, not physical defects of deficiencies, including emotional deficiencies, such as maleness. Just as the deliberate production of blind people would be highly immoral, so would be the deliberate production of emotional cripples.”

It looks as if there is some basis to the perception that feminism is misadrist.