Meninism—Who is to blame for men’s problems? By Jessica Smith

Meninism—Who is to blame for men’s problems?

by Jessica Smith

Negative responses to the feminist movement are nothing new. One backlash movement that began in 2013, but seems to have picked up speed and garnered more attention in the past few months, is “Meninism.”

#MeninistTwitter first started trending on Twitter on December 16, 2013, in the United States. Since its beginnings, this “movement” has been disorganized and disoriented. Some self-proclaimed meninists said they were attacking feminism and the hypocrisy they saw in the women’s rights movement. Others said they were making their own version to bridge the gaps of gender inequality that males experience, which go unseen by women’s rights activists.

Some early tweets, gathered by the BBC in December of 2013, included:

“I am a strong, independent man and I don’t need no woman to make me happy!”

“It’s not cheating if they’re both your girlfriend.”

“If you wanna be married so bad, why don’t you buy my ring and propose to me?”

“It’s December...why didn’t you bring your own jacket?”

As you can tell just from this small sample, the concerns posed by these men range from the silly to the disturbing. Some are definitely worth consideration, but the problem is that many of the problems these men have can be traced back to the toxicity of traditional gender roles and the expectations these place on both men and women.

For example, the first one is obviously mocking the “strong independent woman who don’t need no man” trend. What the man here is failing to recognize is that, for a woman to say that she doesn’t need a man is a way for her to fight back against traditional gendered expectations, which alienate and make invisible single women—single men have never risked being looked down on as a “crazy cat lady,” an “old maid,” or a “spinster.” On the contrary, a man who does not need a man is fitting the status quo; men have always been able to support themselves without a heterosexual partner, and in fact are in some ways respected more for not “tying themselves down.”

Meninists seem to be part of a younger offshoot of Men’s Rights Activists, a group who claim to be fighting for gender equality but in fact spend most of their energy doxing feminists who speak up or whining about custody laws. While there are concerns over the inclusiveness of feminism, the men’s rights movement is probably ten times worse. All of their issues are those central only to the white, middle-class, cisgender male, with no concern for transgender men, men of color, or gay/bi/asexual males.

The majority of the tweets and posts related to Meninism bash women for expecting men to pay for dates, open doors, or make the first move. They also point out the double standards between men and women: for example, women expressing a preference for taller men. I could go on and on about this—I myself had a preference for taller men for the longest time, simply because it is expected that in a heterosexual relationship, the female should be petite, cute and, well, feminine, while the male should be taller and stronger. Our society constantly reinforces this idea. However, meninists have jumped on this, saying that if women are allowed to only date taller men, that should basically give men permission to call overweight women fat cows and pretend that they don’t exist.

Kat Blaque noticed the same trend in these meninist posts. In her YouTube video, #MeninistTwitter and Anti-Feminism, she says: “What I’ve noticed from a lot of men who criticize feminism is that almost everything they talk about refers to a romantic or sexual situation they have with a woman and menimist tweets are almost exclusively that.”

Blaque goes on to state: “What these men don’t seem to understand is that feminism is already fighting against these things.”

Essentially, the men jumping on the Meninist bandwagon are failing to understand where the expectations being put on them—to be gentlemanly and chivalrous—are coming from. Today, many women don’t care if you pay for the date, as long as you are a nice guy. And I don’t mean a “Nice Guy,” like “I’ll be nice to you with the expectation that my Kindness points will go in and you will put out.”

Men, before you put on that #Meninist shirt, do a little more research. Look past the first level feminism you see so much on Tumblr these days. Talk to one of your female peers or classmates and try to really listen to what she is saying; maybe you will learn that, underneath everything, women are the same as you, with the same hopes of being respected and spoken to as human beings, not sex machines.



Want more information? Watch Kat Blaque's video: here