Who Needs Feminism?

Today, I came across an article on www.buzfeed.com, titled “Who Needs Feminism?”  Just judging by the title, I was at first expecting this article to be one bashing feminism, like so many of the other ones out there. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that it was doing the opposite. Here’s the link for it: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/who-needs-feminism

In case you don’t actually want to read the entire thing, it’s about a campaign that began at Duke University, which asked students, both female and male, why they needed feminism in their lives. Some of the responses were really powerful, but what struck me the most was what I read when I scrolled down to the comments. The first comment was left by a guy named Alex Foreman, who decided to share why feminism is significant in his life. Here’s the comment (it’s sort of long, but definitely worth reading!):

“I need feminism because I am too often accorded male privilege which I neither deserve nor desire.

I need feminism because the semantics of the English language do not allow me to refer to an attractive female friend who gets laid a lot as a stud and not a slut. Cause she is a fucking stud.

I need feminism because I was bullied as a kid for being a male who liked reading poetry.

I need feminism because when I date a woman 10 years older than me people think that's weird, but 60 year old men dating 18 year olds are congratulated for "still having the touch."

I need feminism because I want to cry at sad movies, but can't because of the limited range of emotions which American men are allowed to display in public.

I need feminism because I am tired of being strange for being a guy who cares this much about feminism.

I need feminism because patriarchy does not just privilege maleness at the expense of femaleness. It also privileges a particular kind of maleness at the expense of other malenesses.

I need feminism because the dudes that laugh at "that's what SHE said" jokes are made slightly uncomfortable by "that's what HE said".

I need feminism because I want to be (but am not) just as much at home in the kitchen as I am in the weightroom.

I need feminism because I am a man.”

I really liked his comment because it touched on so many of the subjects that we have discussed in class. I especially enjoyed the fact that the English language doesn’t allow one to refer to a woman who “gets laid a lot” in a positive manner, the way that it does for men. I’m not sure that we should refer to this for either sex in a positive manner, but that’s irrelevant here. I brought this up because in my Italian class, our professor is constantly telling us that language is a reflection of a culture. An example of this would be the fact that Italians are not raised to be judgmental in the same ways that we are- their language actually does not have a word to say that someone is “cocky” or “overly-confident” in the same way that ours does, and this is due to their culture. So I thought it was pretty interesting that the same connection can be made here- we really have no word to describe “promiscuous” women positively, and this is because of our culture.

There are a lot of other great reasons why feminism is necessary in this article, though, so I would suggest taking a look at it if you get the chance!