Why I'm a feminist

Why I’m a feminist

I am a cisgendered, privileged, straight, white, WASPy-ass male. I’ve never had to deal with the kinds of sexual violence, assault and street harassment that a woman experiences on a daily basis. I see it happen — it sickens me to death.

I can go out after dark and expect not to have a vanful of teens “I’M GOING TO FUCK YOUR ASS” (I saw this happen to some women while walking and they zoomed away before I could react). I can go for a run and not get attacked or harassed. I can live my life freely, without having to worry about sexual violence from strangers and so-called friends.

I’ma feminist because, ultimately, sexual violence is a symptom of an underlying condition — a patriarchal society that lacks respect towards women, their individuality and their liberty. That’s wrong, and needs to change.

I don’t want to control women, I don’t want to tell them what to do. I want to help them reach their maximal potential. That means listening to their problems, being an ally, empathizing with them and then acting on the cheap talk I’m proffering.

If feminism is the radical notion that women are people too, it also means that men are people too. And we don’t have to act tough or pretend to be something we’re not — we can be ourselves, not some idealized version of masculinity that only existed in John Wayne movies.

It’s easy to be a male feminist on the Internetz, it’s a lot harder to do it when you’re witnessing some random stranger harassing some random woman — or when your own male friends are spewing misogynistic garbage. I’m going to hold myself to account and try and live closer to my beliefs, and act on them loudly and publicly — because talk is cheap, and actions speak louder than words.