"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


Friday, October 05, 2007

Friday Men Doing Feminist Work: Favorite Male Feminist Bloggers

I go back and forth sometimes as regards men who identify as feminists, or as feminist allies, and how much blogging can make a difference. I've come to think that, as one part of what we do in the world, as one piece of a very much larger puzzle, it can. Yes, a lot of what we do as bloggers can tend to be more like living in academia if we're not careful--ivory tower feminists may do more harm than good for feminist causes--but a lot of what we do gets people thinking, and at least offers us some kind of community to find some comfort and some passion.

So this week's Men Doing Feminist Work Friday is about some of my favorite male feminist bloggers.


  • Chris Clarke at Creek Running North:
    Despite the fact that I disagree somewhat with him about his pretty famous "why I am not a feminist" post, it's still a great read, and made me understand the conceptual troubles around naming men as feminists a lot better. But what I like most about Clarke's feminism is the way in which he integrates it into his other posts, and into his life. He writes poetry about feminism and men, for pete's sake.

  • Hugo Schwyzer: I still say that Hugo's Christianity will one day collapse under the weight of its sexist underpinnings, in the light of Hugo's feminist proclivities, but part of what makes Hugo a good read is the complexity of his life, and of his worldview--and of feminist principles that live along side, say, Christian ones. I also like that Hugo doesn't shy away from long posts--blogging tends to be a short-blurb medium a good deal of the time, and the issues that feminists have to deal with aren't always best served by the short-blurb format. Plus, the guy writes at length about Christianity and BDSM.

  • Roy at No Cookies for Me: Let's be honest, Roy's got the best blog title of any male feminist blogger (please correct me if I'm wrong here). Roy finds a nice mix of deeper theory and pop-culture analysis. It's lovely to find posts about video games right alongside (or concurrent with) posts about conceptual analysis of traditional masculinity. Plus, he's funny.


This isn't an exhaustive list, of course (not only am I leaving out lots of people I've met online recently, but also some of the people who've been A-listers for a while), but these are the guys that post often, and almost always have something important to say.

Who are your favorite male feminist bloggers?

6 comments:

Sam said...

Masculinity and its Discontents at http://man-ifesto.com/ is one I like.

They get bonus points for the freud reference and the web address too.

Sunshine Morningstar said...

I've been enjoying some posts over at America's Next Bill Clinton:

http://profeministmale.wordpress.com/

Jeff Pollet said...

Yay! Thanks for the great links, Sam and SM!

J. K. Gayle said...

I still say that Hugo's Christianity will one day collapse under the weight of its sexist underpinnings, in the light of Hugo's feminist proclivities,

and some of us still say that Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Christianity actually generated and nurtured feminism in America. too bad she and the likes of Frederick Douglass and James Mott aren't alive today to blog like Hugo.

and yes thanks for the links

Jeff Pollet said...

j.k. It's interesting you mention Frederick Douglass, since Douglass was pretty pissed off at Stanton for rallying against giving ex-slaves the right to vote ahead of giving women the vote. I have to wonder how much of her opinions in this regard (wikipedia notes: Arguing on behalf of female suffrage, Stanton posited that women voters of "wealth, education, and refinement" were needed to offset the effect of former slaves and immigrants whose "pauperism, ignorance, and degradation" might negatively affect the American political system.) stem from the more socially conservative aspects of her religious beliefs.

Stanton was pretty amazing, but I'm more enamored with Lucretia Mott (and James)--and it's no surprise that I often find that the Quakers are a particular sort of Xtian that we don't get 'round these parts very often.

I think there is plenty of room in the largest of feminist tents for Xtians, but I also think that, for the flavors of feminism that I think do the most good, Xtianity is misogynist to a very deep level.

J. K. Gayle said...

Jeff,
Good pts on Douglass being (rightly) pissed at Stanton. And, if we're going to paint Xianity as deeply misogynistic, then let's call it just as profoundly racist and pro-slavery.

Yes, then feminism needs a huge tent to include all that mess.

But I'm not the only one who says Jesus X is a much much more profound feminist and abolitionist than most. No wonder both Stanton and Douglass found plenty of feminist and abolitionist room inside the tent of that one who lived and taught equality for women (in a bigoted and sexist society).

One more thing: I meant to give you props for warning "a lot of what we do as bloggers can tend to be more like living in academia if we're not careful--ivory tower feminists may do more harm than good for feminist causes".

I DO live in academia and do see the harm we do over here. There's a fight on many fronts: on academic snobbery: where are the true feminists and Hellenists?
and PIMPING ACADEMICALLY.