The Downside of Feminism

Published in The Catalyst 

Feminism, historically and internationally, is beyond wonderful. It has shattered oppressive traditions and achieved human rights for females worldwide. It cannot be denied that it has played both a pivotal and a gigantic role in human history. Furthermore, the majority of feminists living today are well informed, hard-working and powerful people fighting the good fight and making the world a better place. Feminism, in its best form, is the simple notion that women are people.

All that said, I believe it is fair to admit that a. Feminist movements have worked, perhaps without realizing, against the rights or needs of men and b. Feminist movements have worked, perhaps without realizing, to perpetuate inequality and gender roles.

Before you assume that these statements mean I have a contrived view of feminism, re-read my first paragraph. Not only do most feminists believe in equality, but most feminists who are perpetuating inequality at least think they are promoting equality.

For me, the fact of the matter is that while it used to be true that being in a woman in America meant that in nearly every single way, you were at an overarching disadvantage, it now seems to be far from clear-cut. While I don’t feel the need to generalize or suggest being a man is harder than being a woman, I think it’s important that we recognize undeniable and institutionalized disadvantages of being an American man. 

If you are a male in America, the expectations of your life are often non-existent. According to multiple studies of elementary-level classrooms, including one conducted by Diane Halpern, you receive far more blame and punishment by teachers if you are male. According to an Ohio State University study, females get better grades for the same quality work in all levels of education and are still provided with an overwhelming amount of more incentives, thus outpace men in college enrollment and degrees. So, your grades are likely to be worse and you are far less likely to graduate high school, less likely to graduate college, and thus far less likely to have a job.

 In fact, in the United States, men are twice as likely to be unemployed and four times more likely to have been let go during the recession than women. This is all so much more disturbing when race is factored in. Black men are targeted by the police far more than black women and are overwhelmingly more likely to end up uneducated and unemployed. It is just as wrong to attribute all this to an inherent stupidity or laziness men hold, as it is to attribute the fact that despite all this women still make less money than men because they are underachieving and incompetent. The reality is that being a man in America encompasses massive challenges often overlooked by feminists.

These challenges include the dare-we-speak-of double standards. Because men are expected to be strong and dominant, males claiming they were sexually harassed or raped by women are taken far less seriously. Moreover, Men have no laws such as the Violence Against Women Act that afford them equal protection under the law when they are victimized by violence. This is even more disturbing when one considers that The U.S. Center for Disease Control and the American Psychiatric Association found of heterosexual relationships involving violence, 50.3% involve non-reciprocal violence, and of that 50.3%, women were the instigators 70.7% of the time. Unsurprisingly, a U.S. survey of thousands of adults regarding intimate partner violence, participants were more accepting of women hitting men, and were consistently more likely to tolerate the violence if they were first asked about women hitting men rather than the reverse. The expectation of men to be both emotionally and physically strong figures has led us to create a world where male victims are intolerable and must shut up. This goes way too far. There are dozens of Rape crisis centers that refuse to help male rape victims and zero rape crisis centers that cater only to men. Again, while there are hundreds of women-only rape crisis centers in the United States, there is not a single rape crisis center than cares only for men.

So what role has feminism played? Not always a bad one. Many feminists push to tear down all society-led expectations of both genders. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the norm. Far too many feminists see America as a place where women can’t get what men can. They claim that women make 50 cents for every dollar a man makes. They claim that women are not in positions of power and they claim that women are discriminated upon in the workplace. While these claims are true in many regards, they remain generalizations and have led us down a path that is making sure this nation is unfairly difficult for men.

Yes, women make less than men today, 80 cents for every dollar to be exact. Part of the reason this is true is because the vast majority of the wealthiest Americans are men. If you look at the typical middle class man and the typical middle class woman, they almost always earn the same wage. The general-public stat is thrown way off because the average salary of the uber-wealthy men is so incredibly high. Still, studies show that female CEOs are paid more than male CEOs and the vast majority of the unemployed, imprisoned or homeless are men. The stats, incontestable and undisputed, don’t stop there. The vast majority of suicide victims are also men. Because men are expected to be void of feelings like sadness, shame, self-consciousness and despair, they are far more likely to commit suicide as a result of keeping those emotions bottled up. Men are also more likely to be violent in a society that expects them to work under more stress with later hours than women and in a society that forbids females to serve in combat.

American Feminism has lost its way if you ask me. There are simply too many examples of the disadvantages of being a man for me to declare myself a feminist. So, I have come to identify as a humanist, one who believes in equality of the genders and is willing to fight against discrimination that goes both ways.