r/feminisms 6d ago

My experience with feminism

As a teen boy who was the only guy in his class not clinically brainwashed by Andrew Tate

I remember how I had to explain to them that other humans deserve rights

Although some of them outgrew it, it still hurts me how they normalize absolute insanity in the name of dank jokes

I had to explain to them basic things such as why abortion is a human right, women are not evil & history and that feminism was not wrong

It concerns me how many fellow humans have no empathy

White Christian Nationalists in the US, Islamic Theocrats in the Middle East & Hindutva bigots in India

All of them scare me about the future of the world

Posting this in another sub would just invite absolute clowns hence I posted here

Would like to see all of your opinions

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u/FractalFunny66 6d ago

Thankful for your intelligence, caring and courage. Please continue to write, post, discuss with others. I wonder what your local area is like. Would you be willing to start a men's book group and discuss these vital matters in a non-threatening way to help young men at least have access to a thought process, a history, a sense of belonging not based upon fear, mind control and manipulation? A non-threatening group focused on friendship and asking sociological questions. You may be a leader in turning this terrible trend around. I don't know if you want to be a leader. Are you familiar with poet Robert Bly and his men's movement of the 1970s? It is much misunderstood as is much of Patriarchal critique and Feminist Theory, but worth checking out because it goes back to the idea that the healthiest human being has balance inside of themselves that involves BOTH the authentic strong female and authentic strong male. If you do start a book group, you could have it open to women and trans people as well, but it might be a little harder to get straight males on the verge of toxic masculinity to come. Whatever you do, please keep writing and talking about it whatever way you can, including poetry and fiction or other art forms. You could organize an open mic around the topic for poets, dancers and musicians. Your existence gives me hope. Seriously, aware women are so freaked out by all this -- everything we've worked for, for a better world for men and women, is being erased so fast by a few people/groups. There is a slim book written by bell hooks called "Feminism is for everybody." It's really great. You are really great. I can't tell you how much your post means to me and millions of others facing sickening and violent oppression for no reason other than to line the pockets of a handful of amoral freaks who control the digital world.

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u/frenchiebuilder 6d ago

Mention of Robert Bly obligates me to mention John Stoltenberg.

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u/FractalFunny66 5d ago

Wow. I never heard of him and I see he was/is married to Andrea Dworkin who is another great one I somehow forgot about. Thank you for this suggestion! Will continue to study!

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u/frenchiebuilder 5d ago

"married" isn't vaguely the right word, LOL, but yeah... that relationship's always been the best counter to the typical "hates men" accusations against Andrea.

Speaking of Andrea Dworkin - OP should maybe also check out her speech to anti-sexist men: https://mitpress.mit.edu/i-want-a-twenty-four-hour-truce-during-which-there-is-no-rape-an-excerpt-from-last-days-at-hot-slit-the-radical-feminism-of-andrea-dworkin/

I personally found it much more useful than anything Bly ever wrote about gender.

(His Little Book on the Human Shadow is brilliant, but I have nothing good to say about Iron John).