Today is Feminist Coming Out Day!
It might not come as a surprise for regular readers of this tumblr or regular friends of mine, but I consider myself a feminist. At least I try to be a feminist lad, not only when posting cool and/or important stuff here, but also in my relationship – domestic and otherwise – and in my interaction with others.
I don’t have one definite breakthrough feminist moment to share, no awakening story. In a sense I gradually shifted into a feminist position, reading blogs like feministing.com and maedchenmannschaft.net and reading and thinking about feminist and gender studies related work during my studies.
What I want to share today are two points I think are important for (white, middle class, cis-) mal feminists/feminist allies.
a) Be aware of your priviledge. Our society is still tilted in a way that regularily and in often not obvious ways prefers you and your opinion. That is not the case in feminist circles. I do think that men can be an useful, productive and important part in feminism. But a as a dude I have to be aware that in these circles, my opinion is that of the outsider, and not the most important one. You do not need to feel threatened by feminism – if you do not act like a sexist idiot, feminism is probably not out to get you.
b) Try to be critical in almost everything you do. Be critical of yourself and your sorroundings. Sexim in our society today has taken many forms, often quite overt forms. Sexist jokes for example hurt, and are counter-productive on the way to a less sexist environment, even if they are told “ironically”. You can be and have fun without being sexist. You can also try to shop in the stores/ buy the products with the least sexist advertisement. It’s the little things that count.
So, these were my 2 cents for Feminist Coming Out Day. I’m not always a perfect feminist myself (who is?) but I try my best. And thanks to feminism I met a couple of great friends. And had a lot of fun, too.
Otherwise – happy International Women’s Day, dear women!
Thoughts?