Feminism has been a hugely influential political movement in the last few decades. In Western countries such as the US and Sweden, government policy and mainstream media have accepted the basic tenets of radical feminism without much resistance. However, during the past few years, an increasing number of people have started questioning the unconditional embrace of feminism, and whether feminism is the best way to address gender issues in society.
During the past decade we’ve seen an increasing number of books, articles and blogs that clearly demonstrate that feminism operates from a set of rigid assumptions, and that men’s voices are sorely needed in the discussion around gender roles. It’s easy to believe that most of these critical voices are coming from a similar place; however, I do not believe this to be the case at all. People who take issue with some or most of the feminist assumptions, do so from very different belief structures.
In fact, I started playing around with different ways that you can be critical of feminism, and came up with Six Different Levels of Feminist Critics:
- At this level you have no criticism towards feminism and believe that feminism is spot-on. You are a feminist yourself and possibly self-identify with a particular branch of the movement.
- Some mild criticism starts appearing. You find it important that masculinity studies within the feminist framework are carried out, since you believe that patriarchy hurts men too. Many liberal men and cultural creatives can be found in this category.
- Radical feminism (i.e. the belief that men structurally oppress women) is criticized without hesitation, but classical feminism is embraced and deemed to be the solution to gender issues. You believe that women were unfairly disadvantaged in the past, but that the only correction needed is civil and legal equality around the world. You may or many not have anything against a men’s movement. This is the level where we find Christina Hoff-Sommers, who’s written Who Stole Feminism and The War Against Boys – two very important books for the men’s movement.
- Both gender roles are viewed as being more or less equally limited and harmful to the individual. Men and women face very different gender roles, but neither one can be said to be much worse than the other. Consequently, you believe that feminism only views half of the problems that a discourse on gender needs to address, and a masculist discourse is needed to balance things out. This is the stance (according to my interpretation) of author Warren Farrell, who is perhaps the best known and most important writer in the men’s movement.
- This level is identical to number 4 above, with the addition that you criticize the common feminist position of believing that all gender differences are socially constructed. It’s not that people at level 4 ignore innate sex differences, but at level 5 you consider them to be crucial in any balanced discussion on how gender shows up in culture and society.
- At this final stage, you believe that the male gender role is worse than the female gender role, and that things could only be set right by by having a dominant masculist movement, similar to the way we now have a feminist movement dominating the discourse.
Where would you place yourself in this list?
Personally, I belong on level 5, but I believe that anyone from level 3 to 5 can work together to bring more sanity to the whole discussion on gender equality. The first two levels propagate the onesidedness of feminism, which is becoming increasingly unsustainable as men are starting to wake up and demand a gender discourse that looks at the situation of both sexes.
The final level–level 6–is the pitfall of the masculist or men’s movement. The moment you enter this realm you are in danger of sliding down into the same anger and lack of fact-checking that radical feminists around the world regularly resort to. If men’s rights activists, masculists and feminist critics are to have any success in working towards true equality and a society that respects both sexes fully, then level 6 cannot be allowed to have any sort of real influence.
That said, I’m well aware that growing up with feminism, the way I did myself, can create a lot of unresolved anger. So there is a real need for places to vent, where men can say things without needing to come across as grounded and balanced. Men’s groups can be the perfect container for this kind of venting, as can blogs that are dedicated to that purpose–if you don’t have access to a men’s group. However, any person critical of feminism cannot lose sight of the fact that it is only by taking the moral high ground, that the emerging voices of men and the emerging voice of reason, can be successful in implementing a new paradigm that replaces the feminist worldview with one that authentically cares about both sexes.
