Sometimes I get asked why I am a feminist. Male feminists can be somewhat of a rare breed, and it can be confusing to some people why I go beyond “gender equality” to argue in favour of feminism. Feminism is largely about gender equality, but it goes beyond it to focus specifically on women’s issues (generally revolving around issues regarding reproduction, but also others like violence against women). So why am I, a man, concerned with women’s issues?

The answer is at once simple and complex: autonomy.Continue Reading

A few days ago, I was part of an infuriating argument on Facebook about abortion. It started out with much civility: a pro-life person asking nicely for people’s views, and people responding with their own views. But it was largely men who responded (myself included), and when a couple women chimed in to point out the gender disparity, the response ended up being something like, “So you’re saying I can’t have an opinion because I don’t have a uterus?” The conversation only continued to plummet further downhill.

But at some point early on in the discussion, one of the commenters asked the question, “But what about rape?” It’s a common question when discussing abortion. In fact, it has come up quite early on in almost every discussion I’ve ever had about abortion. What do pro-life people think about situations where a woman is raped and now is pregnant with her attacker’s child? It is a question, however, of which I’ve grown tired. It generally does not progress the discussion, and I think it holds the potential to be hurtful. So I’d like to ask people to stop asking that question, and talk about the reasons why they should stop.Continue Reading

The current political rhetoric in the United States (and other countries, to a lesser extent) is all about government regulations vs. the free market. Republican candidates have been spending much time making promises about budget cuts, removal of regulations, and untying the hands of “job creators.” Government regulation is said to be “inefficient” and an impedance to the progress of the country. The rhetoric here in Canada over the past few years has been similar, focusing on “stimulating the economy” and creating jobs.

Amongst all this language about business and economies, it is important to clarify the goals or end-state that one wishes for society to achieve. Certainly, people have different ideas about what society should be like, but in general I think it is fairly uncontroversial to state that society should benefit the people within it. I would submit that a good goal for society to have is to be just and equitable, and to work toward the well-being of its citizens. It is only after we set this goal that we can start to clarify whether government regulations and policies are truly a good thing. Do they achieve this goal?Continue Reading

One of the lovely words that feminism has created is “mansplaining”. Unlike “bromance” or “manscaping” or “murse”, which imply that men’s non-sexual same-gender friendships, untamed body hair, or fashion accessories are somehow totally different from women’s, mansplaining is not an attempt to state that men explain things differently than women. I think Karen Healey says it well:

Mansplaining is when a dude tells you, a woman, how to do something you already know how to do, or how you are wrong about something you are actually right about, or miscellaneous and inaccurate “facts” about something you know a hell of a lot more about than he does.

Bonus points if he is explaining how you are wrong about something being sexist!

It’s the “Well, actually…” of discussions about gender (or any topic, really). As an example of the attitude in question: I had a discussion today with a guy who thinks that he knows everything. On any topic for which you could ever dream up, he would confidently assert his opinion, stated more as fact than opinion. While I admit that he is certainly well-read, no one is capable of being an expert in every topic. But conversations with this person quickly devolve into a lesson about how you are wrong and he is right. He frequently cuts people off to interject his disagreement before even having anything to disagree about, and relays his points with didactic condescension. All-around, he is just an annoying conversation partner. Take this attitude, and put it in the context of men conversing with women, and you have mansplaining.Continue Reading