So the other day I was at a friends house, and I saw on her G@G feed the following question "why are guys afraid of feminism?" So when I got home I crafted a response and couldn't find the question, (don't you hate that?!). So to the pink person who asked that question here's my answer.
There are 3 reasons why feminism scares me.
The first and foremost is "othering."
The act of separating yourself from another group of people for political reasons. This is done in two ways, the first is making that group seem dangerous and or threatening. Using things such as this poster.
Using orphaned statistics.
(see how it doesn't give the same statistic for men, which by the way is nearly every guy will raped beaten or abused in some way or 1 in 1)
And increasing the threat narrative.
The other way is to talk about unearned privileges such as the glass ceiling.
The wage gap.
And patriarchy itself
feminist definition of patriarchy
The second thing that scares me is the idea that women always have it worse in our society.
The unchallenged and unchallangeable idea that women always have it worse as a whole, then men. Without studies, or any other basis in reality, feminism teaches that women have it worse then guys. As a guy can never know what it's like to be a woman, and women will never know what it's like to be a guy, there is no way to judge this, so it stands.
And the third thing that scares me is the lessening of legal rights of those accused of crimes.
The idea of "I believe the victim" and "me too" both have stated an accused should step down, should be fired, should be punished without ever looking at weather or not it actually happened (especially if the accused was a man). The rights of the accused have been whittled away in our social and court systems, especially in areas where feminists have been focused: rape, sexual misconduct, domestic abuse, etc. This is the direct result of feminist action.
So why does this concern me? As most of this isn't new to most of you, the answer is this is how atrocities are made. Othering comes from military and social techniques to lesson the moral impact of violence done against a group, -yes she hit a guy, but she's a girl, and he's a guy- is an example, another example is the killing of Christians in radical Muslim territories, if asked the answer is the same, "they weren't one of us". In other words, they don't count.
The lessening of suffering leads to a second moral dilemma, if they don't hurt as bad as you, then their suffering doesn't seem to count. You see this often in feminists derision of men's issues, "yes but they just don't know how hard it is to be a woman, " And lastly the lowering of legal standards. This should give pause to anyone who has ever been accused of a crime, weather true or not, the accusation sticks with you.
So where does this lead us? The answer is probably nowhere, but possibly death, internment, punishment for just being male, etc. There is a radical set of feminists who call for such things. Hashtag "kill all men" has been popular for a while, as has the franchise "boys are stupid throw rocks at them." There has even been a call for castration of all men. Jokes? Perhaps, but jokes have power. Some jokes just aren't funny.
Here's some more on othering and the results of it:
Violence in the process of othering
Interview with the woman who calls for the death of 90% of all men.
Most Helpful Opinions