Can Men Be Feminists?

Within the past couple of years there has been a resurgence in the women’s rights movement not only in America but around the world. The equal rights of women have been a long standing issue with countless double standards placed upon women everyday, from the way they dress to what they might actually be interested in. Being a male, I cannot possibly fully understand the female experience, but in my mind that means I cannot help the cause either. However, I can’t help but wonder how other people feel about men being feminists ,so I decided to go out and ask people what they thought. These are my results.

A total of 145 people were asked the question “can men be feminists?”: 61 freshman, 26 sophomores, 39 juniors and 19 seniors. The results came as follows: 33 freshman boys said yes while 13 said no, all 15 freshman girls said yes. As for sophomores, all seven girls asked said yes, and 15 boys said yes while four said no. Junior boys had one no and 22 yes answers while all 16 females said yes. All ten senior females said yes while eight males said yes and one said no. Looking at the number as a whole, 19 out of 145 total students said no–all male. Additionally, all of the “no’s” came from lower classmen except for one who was a senior, and preferred the term “gender equality” to “feminism.” According to the data presented the majority feel that, yes, men can be feminists as well. Also, the data shows that people (especially maturing young men) understand that they are granted certain advantages as a result of being male. That being said, for the “no’s,” there are a number of things to consider: I am sure that for some individuals asked, they were not really sure what feminism is, or have never thought about it before. After identifying what feminism is some people still said no while other changed their answer.

It is hard to truly pin down the true feelings in these situations as well. Basic psychology shows that people’s responses and answers to questions can be easily swayed by one another, but that really is not the root or reasoning for this question. Can men be feminists? Yes, they can, and the more that people identify as feminists, the closer we come to making women’s rights the same as men.

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