FAQ: Can men be feminists?

Many men are entirely comfortable with calling themselves feminists, and many feminist women are very happy to accept them as fellow feminists working for the end of sexist oppression.

Photo: A man wearing a “This is what a feminist looks like” shirt at a political rally. Cropped (with permission) from an original image uploaded by Alarming Female (it’s her father).

However, there are also men and women who are ideologically uncomfortable with men calling themselves feminists, because it seems to be a co-option of movements built by and for women. These groups express a preference for the terms pro-feminist or feminist allies when speaking of men who support and advocate feminism.

The debate over the terms is an undercurrent of controversy rather than an enormously divisive issue in the broad women’s movement.

Related Reading:

• FAQ: What roles should men play in feminism?
• FAQ: Why do you feminists hate men?
• FAQ: Aren’t feminists just sexists towards men?

Introductory:

• Michael Flood (XY-Online): Pro-feminist men’s FAQ
• Lizzie Garcha (the f-word): Men in feminism
• Lindsay Beyerstein (Majikthise): Men can be feminists

Personal perspectives on men taking the “feminist” label:

• Chris Clarke (Creek Running North): Why I Am Not A Feminist
• Jeff (Feminist Allies): Another reason I call myself a Feminist
• Michael Flood (XY-Online): Can men be feminists?
• Aspazia (Mad Melancholic Feminista): Can Men Be Feminists?
• Twisty Faster (I Blame The Patriarchy): Can A Liberal White Dude Be A Feminist?

Clarifying Concepts:

• Why some women are wary of men self-identifying as “feminist”:
  

  Lately, there’s been a spate of “male feminists” posting at the BBs where I lurk. At first I saw them and I thought, great! I mean, I like feminists, and I like men, so you’d think I’d love this purported hybrid of the two. And yet, no, not so much, not so much at all.

  As a matter of fact, it’s caused me to realize that most of the men I’ve personally known who have made a huge hairy point of identifying as feminists have been either date rapists, mom fetishists, porn addicts, or bear daddies inflicting their frustrated pseudopaternal tendencies on women. They are some of the most passive-aggressive, patronizing, out-dishing without it-taking twerps on the planet, and they are poisoning the women’s movement from the inside by sapping the hell out of everyone’s goddamn energy.

  [Janice Erlbaum (girlbomb): "Feminist Men": Oxymorons, or Simply Morons?.]