I’m generalizing here, but men’s lib looks VERY different to women’s lib. Women started from a position of very low power, liberation was nearly a continuous improvement for all but the most privileged women.
Men’s lib requires first giving up a lot of patriarchal power before gaining the benefits of men’s lib, which in my opinion far surpass those of patriarchal power. There are a lot of barriers to this. First, most “online” feminists talk only about giving up patriarchal power. This feels hostile to most men and has bolstered misogynist influencers like tate et al. Second real life men and women are typically both complicit as men in enforcing patriarchal views of what a man is supposed to be. You can see experiences of men crying or expressing real emotion in front their prospective significant others as a prime example of this. Third there is no easy to access popular description of the benefits to men of men’s lib. There are great examples, but they aren’t as culturally relevant as patriarchal influencers yet.
The path to men’s lib is complex and has very different challenges than women’s lib. I think we’re getting there, but it’s certainly a slow process and at this time I think the counter reaction is more prevalent and popular.
100% to all of this. I’m also finding as far as the mental health area specifically, we need more male therapists and inpatient workers to model healthy behaviors for some of the younger men (and the older ones, they’re just less likely to listen). I’ve found the most success in empowering the men I know who do have it together because they know better what needs to be said and often if there is misogyny at play the patient is less likely to listen to me saying the exact same thing anyway. So in addition to being a complex issue, it’s also one that takes men themselves to solve.
I also LOVE that you said “Tate et al,” not because I think he says anything worthy of wiping my ass on, but just because I love the air of scholarship it added to a topic I often innately associate with some of the seedier parts of the internet, but that really does deserve more of a place in both mainstream and academic discussion.
I’m generalizing here, but men’s lib looks VERY different to women’s lib. Women started from a position of very low power, liberation was nearly a continuous improvement for all but the most privileged women.
Men’s lib requires first giving up a lot of patriarchal power before gaining the benefits of men’s lib, which in my opinion far surpass those of patriarchal power. There are a lot of barriers to this. First, most “online” feminists talk only about giving up patriarchal power. This feels hostile to most men and has bolstered misogynist influencers like tate et al. Second real life men and women are typically both complicit as men in enforcing patriarchal views of what a man is supposed to be. You can see experiences of men crying or expressing real emotion in front their prospective significant others as a prime example of this. Third there is no easy to access popular description of the benefits to men of men’s lib. There are great examples, but they aren’t as culturally relevant as patriarchal influencers yet.
The path to men’s lib is complex and has very different challenges than women’s lib. I think we’re getting there, but it’s certainly a slow process and at this time I think the counter reaction is more prevalent and popular.
100% to all of this. I’m also finding as far as the mental health area specifically, we need more male therapists and inpatient workers to model healthy behaviors for some of the younger men (and the older ones, they’re just less likely to listen). I’ve found the most success in empowering the men I know who do have it together because they know better what needs to be said and often if there is misogyny at play the patient is less likely to listen to me saying the exact same thing anyway. So in addition to being a complex issue, it’s also one that takes men themselves to solve.
I also LOVE that you said “Tate et al,” not because I think he says anything worthy of wiping my ass on, but just because I love the air of scholarship it added to a topic I often innately associate with some of the seedier parts of the internet, but that really does deserve more of a place in both mainstream and academic discussion.