Möchten Sie ein männlicher Feminist werden? Das käme auf Sie zu

Kat Stoeffel gehört zur Anne-Wizorek-Schule des Männer-sind-schuldig-Feminismus. In einem aktuellen Beitrag erklärt Stoeffel Männern, dass sie, auch wenn sie sich für Frauen einsetzen, immer noch zweitklassig sind:

I have a handful of straight male friends I consider to be feminists. They know when to speak up on behalf of a female friend or colleague, and they know when to sit down, shut up, and listen. They’re working through their issues about women without foisting them upon the women in their lives. They gently explain feminism to other men in the woman-bashing conversations that happen behind even the most progressive closed doors. And they would all sooner die than call themselves feminists.

I can’t say I blame them. There’s something suspicious about anyone eager to identify with the oppressed. Many men seem to reach for the "feminist" label first to shore up their sensitive-dude bona fides and, second, to get a little female validation. (...) And although we can all agree men should care about feminism, the professional male feminist is a singularly ignoble creature in today’s media and politics landscape. (...) Even if Clymer and Schwyzer somehow published and promoted nothing but Sensitive, Correct, Good Takes (a feat that would be almost magical for anyone working on a contemporary online-publishing schedule), they’d still be taking up space that a woman might have otherwise occupied. Men already have a slew of men’s media outlets and the entire mainstream media at their disposal. Why do they also need Jezebel and their own tyrannically controlled Facebook group to do feminism? To earn professional accolades creating or infiltrating feminist spaces — but to still act defensive in the face of criticism from the women you purport to serve — undermines your shaky right to be there in their first place.

(...) That said, I can imagine how it might be uniquely difficult for straight, white men to stomach feminist criticism. Whenever I'm criticized by someone whose experience I've failed to address in my writing (because of my own manifold privileges), I get prickly and sad. And then I remember how I would want straight, rich, white bros to respond when I call them out for being oblivious. I wouldn’t want them to get defensive, pleading their First Amendment right to offend me or demanding a personal explanation of why they were wrong. I would want them to read — really read — what I wrote, to laugh at my jokes, to see where I’m coming from, and to try harder next time. So that’s what I try to do. But if I were a guy feminist, and I didn’t have this analogy to reach for in the face of criticism, I would be at a loss.

One of the hardest parts of coming to grips with the depth and breadth of the patriarchy is recognizing that there are no exceptions. Maybe you didn’t, personally, do anything wrong, but you were still born into a power structure that gave you unjust rewards. The system — whether it’s the patriarchy or white supremacy or capitalism — does not offer special exemptions for individuals with good intentions. And that should make you mad: The fact is that even though you know better, and are truly a male feminist, you’re still stuck being the bad guy.

"Schuldig" sind Sie sowieso. Sie können also genausogut gleich der gerne verteufelten Männerrechtsbewegung beitreten.

Währenddessen veröffentlicht Dr. Tara Palmatier den Bericht eines früheren männlichen Feministen, der schildert, von seiner Mutter dazu erzogen worden zu sein, Beziehungen mit misshandelnden Frauen und dem Feminismus einzugehen. Sehr aufschlussreich, was die Beziehungsdynamik angeht, die sich zwischen solchen Männern und Du-bist-schuldig-Frauen abspielt.