Some Men: Feminist Allies & The Movement To End Violence Against Women

After earning a doctorate, Castro was hired by a small men’s college in rural Indiana to teach feminism theory and women 's literature to thirty-five men. She was prepared and ready for the disagreements, the drop outs and the failures that couldn’t open up their minds on feminism. But she values those voices, the questions and hostility because "they taught me how to make feminism 's insights relevant to people outside a closed, snug room of agreement" (Castro, 98). She had learned how to create feminism theory, critical race theory and observation about class privilege relevant, exciting and even needful to people who had no material reason to care. She learned diplomacy.

Peoples’ differing views on feminism is cause for constant debate, as shown by Scott Russell Sanders, in his essay The Men We Carry in Our Minds. He brings a rather different, but accurate view point to the feminism debate. His perspective is not one that is overheard; instead it brings a new fresh idea and argument to the debate. He describes a man’s point of view, but not just any man’s view, one that witnessed and was around men that had jobs at steel mills, or a coal mines. The men that had the jobs that no one wanted, but were forced to work because they needed to make money so they could support their family.

Feminism has not changed today, but its focus has changed. Many women today have good education and employment opportunities just like men, as the early feminist fought for them. Now, after getting all these, men are now discriminating them and at times abusing them in order to undermine their hard work and potentiality. Men are doing all they can to undermine the success women have been able to acquired, however, today’s feminism is struggling to protect women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape as well as discrimination.

Many women are experiencing violence against them, whether it be physical, mental, or verbal. According to Kirk, Terry, Lokuge, and Watterson, “Violence against women (VAW) is a major issue worldwide, with an estimated 35% of women, or roughly 1 in 3, experiencing either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime” (p. 2). There have been many groups that have been created to combat violence against women. The group I will be focusing on is White Ribbon group. The White Ribbon are the defenders of women.

Although it is argued that America is starting to shy away from patriarchal beliefs, the fact still remains that the United States is a patriarchal society. There are certain struggles women have to face in America, and all over the globe, that men are less likely to encounter. When you bring race, religion, and/or sexual orientation into the equation, things get even more complicated. For example, an issue for a homosexual African American woman might be a more difficult than an issue for a heterosexual Caucasian female would be. Intersectionality focuses on discrimination and oppression towards disenfranchised groups and minorities. Women in general are prime candidates for intersectionality; therefore it is my goal to discover how

Within today’s society, the word ‘feminism’ is commonly misinterpreted. Feminism is the support for equality of genders throughout society, including the elimination of gender stereotypes and gender roles. While Ralph Ellison incorporates ‘the Brotherhood’ in Invisible Man, which is supposed to advocate for equality, the members of the group still do not put focus on the feminist movement. Women are sexualized, objectified, and not seen as equal to men on countless occasions. In Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison creates a plot in which the male characters are degrading to women, even while some are involved in an equality group, and characterizes males as the dominant and working gender.

Revolutionary gains were made today in the ongoing struggle for men’s rights. Today men from across the country rallied in protest at Washington to demand equality to women, and their voices have been heard. This growing movement of men finally standing up against the matriarchy is called Meninism. We spoke today with Brad, an activist in the movement. “I’m tired of getting friendzoned, okay? It’s ridiculous. I’m expected to buy dinner and hold open the door for these girls, and then I get nothing in return? What’s the point of even pretending to be a nice person if I can’t get laid?” Men all across the nation can sympathize with Brad’s experience.

In the early days of the battered women’s movement, feminists wanted to establish new forms of structural organization by distancing themselves from the hierarchy of mainstream institutions. However, one of the problems radical feminists had was the funding of their autonomous institutions. Feminists faced the challenge of creating autonomous institutions that would engage with mainstream institutions (Reinelt and Ferree, 73). While liberal feminists wanted to reform existing political institutions, radical feminists were in favor of organizing alternative autonomous institutions. Although more battered women’s shelters started to form due to the support of local and state governments, radical activists feared that these shelters would become

Men have been largely erased from these feminist conversations, because of the power of language in feminism discussions. Jackson Katz highlights by saying the dominant group often doesn’t get paid attention to in issues of race, gender, sexual identity. For example, to talk about domestic violence; the sentence “Marcus beat Lily” gives focus to Marcus, portraying him as the perpetrator. ‘Lily was beaten by Marcus’ lets Marcus off the hook by honing in on Lily. Further, the sentence ‘Lily was beaten ‘completely eliminates Marcus and ‘Lily is a battered woman’ shapes Lily’s identity, defining her in those terms. The politics of language are hugely importance for

Thesis: Gilmore argues that through community building and outreach, feminists in the 1970’s, particularly NOW members, were able to “create and sustain their identities (129)” individually as well as developed a “feminist consciousness (129)” as a community as a whole. She argues that “grassroots” movements on the local level using “rank-and-file” activists were more vital to the women’s movement than the “leaders” of the movement.

Feminism can be defined as the belief that women and men should have equal rights. This is an incredibly simple premise in theory; however, as soon as one starts to unpack exactly what it would take for equality of the sexes many other inter-related issues arise. One of the main issues is that there are many different types of oppression including, but not limited to, gender, race, sexuality, sexual orientation, ethnicity and socio-economic background. All of these factors and more must be taken into consideration when discussing systemic privilege and oppression. This essay will mainly be focused on American feminism and there will be particular care paid to how first wave feminism treated and seemingly forgot about women of color in its quest for recognition.

One of the largest issues in today’s society is gendered violence. Gendered violence is violence that occurs because of the role expectations associated with each gender, as well as the unequal power relationships between the genders (Defining Gender-Based Violence). The more common form of this is violence against women. One campaign that is working diligently to try and eliminate this problem is the White Ribbon Campaign. The White Ribbon Campaign is a movement of boys and men working to end violence against females and promote gender equity. The campaign asks men to wear white ribbons as a pledge to never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls (White Ribbon). The White Ribbon Campaign has been successful and effective in its efforts to educate men and boys about gendered violence and is making headway in their pursuance of the end of violence against women.

Often, men believe the preconceived notion that all activists of women’s equality retain a deeply rooted animosity for all men. According to Evan Weissman, “Because the media portray feminists as ‘dykes who hate men,’ I brought into my first women’s studies class a fear that my female classmates would hate me because I was a man, I was the oppressor. I learned in the course the difference between acting against men and acting against the actions of me” (Weissman 36). I believe that men search for excuses rather than participating in the women’s rights movement. Men can claim that they are unaware of the bias that occurs against women; however, many are, in fact, fully mindful of the circumstance. In one instance, men claim to be without knowledge

It is difficult to imagine living in a world without the patriarchal roles that are present in society and have been throughout history. In the article “Feminist Criticism,” by Lois Tyson, the idea of feminism and how society has affected feminism is the focus. These ideas are seen because men have more of a voice in nearly everything and the oppression of women is very common; a society set up like this can be described with the term patriarchy which is “any culture that privileges men by promoting traditional gender roles,” where men are cast as “rational, strong, protective, and decisive,” and women are cast “as emotional, weak, nurturing, and submissive” (Tyson, 1). This thought that men are strong and women weak is not uncommon in

Throughout the last century, women have had to fight to have the same opportunities as men. Women have had to earn the right to vote, the right to have a career, and the right to autonomy. However, these are all rights that men have simply been given, which is why today’s feminists work to promote equality. Despite these efforts, feminism is often misunderstood and is interpreted with a negative connotation. According to a study conducted by Precopio and Ramsey (2017), “feminism is commonly recognized as a movement driven to grant social, political, and economic equality to both women and men.” The participation of others besides women is crucial to the spread of equality among the genders. Furthermore, the stigma and negative feelings surrounding feminism must be reduced in order for the ideals of feminism to have a greater impact.