"The women of Bikini Kill let guitarist Billy Karren be in their feminist punk band, but only if he's willing to just "do some shit." Being a feminist dude is like that. We may ask you to "do some shit" for the band, but you don't get to be Kathleen Hannah."--@heatherurehere


Monday, January 29, 2007

Feminism Helps Men

Just one more little example of how feminism can help us all. Neil Chethik of AlterNet notes how feminist movement expanded his options:
I noticed this first in college as I contemplated my future work life. Feminism freed me from the expectation that I would be the primary wage-earner in my family. Where I had once considered a career based largely on how much money I would earn, now I could ask myself: What do I really want to do?

Thus, my interest in going to law school vanished; my passion for writing took precedence. I entered a profession that I still enjoy today.


Hat tip to Feministing.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a great article - really the kind of writing that needs to get out there.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see this blog active again.

I posted a somewhat critical response to this article here on the blog I share with Daran.

Orion said...

I'm sure feminism has helped me in more ways than I can count.

From when I was 11 to when I was 14, my long hair and slender build caused me to be mistaken frequently for a girl.

When people figured out their mistake, they always became extremely apologetic, which I found uncomfortable and kind of inexplicable.

In all my life, I think there was one time the mix-up bothered me, and that was when a girl at my karate school whom I'd had a crush on for six months turned out not to have known I was male.

(Although, that *did* explain why she kept picking me for a grappling partner)

At the time, not understanding how privilege works, I didn't understand why people made such a big deal of it, but now I'm very glad feminism has made life as tolerable as it is for feminine and androgynous men.