The Men of VFA

Feminism and I

By John Erickson

I remember when I was 18 years old and heard a female role model of mine utter the phrase: “It’s not about right, it’s not about wrong, it’s about power.”  Her name was Buffy Summers and although some might scoff at the sentiment or rebuff the source, this saying has stayed with me through my time as a Women’s Studies major in college to now, as a graduate of two graduate Women’s Studies programs and a soon to be Ph.D.  Specifically, this statement has been one that I lived by when entering into classroom, personal, and political discussions.

As a man in feminism it is my responsibility to negotiate the power, responsibility, and more importantly the vulnerability that comes with being a man in feminism.  I must understand my power as a white, male-bodied individual in feminism and the privilege that I receive from the world just because I was born a man.  I must be responsible for that power and understand that it is both subconsciously oppressive and endowing just as much as it is consciously empowering. However, while I navigate my way through intersectionalities of these positions, I must understand and accept the vulnerability that comes with being a man in feminism.

As men in feminism it is our job to accept and understand that if it comes down to power, then we have to be ok with being vulnerable.  Men have to accept the vulnerability we feel, when we hear the stories of patriarchal oppression and subjugation.  We have to be willing to redefine our positions both within the field of religion and women’s studies as well as the world in order to move beyond heteropatriarchal and heteronormative stereotypes to create a world that is both empowering to women and men from all walks of life.

If the world really does come down to power: who has it, who wants it, and what we do with it once we get it, men in feminism, specifically have to be ok when the power pendulum doesn’t swing their way and that, is why I believe, many men are not involved with feminism today.

Giving up power means making oneself vulnerable and that is a concept that men, traditionally those outside of feminism, still have a hard time admitting to and actually doing.  However, if we begin by exploring the male allies that are already in feminism, then it is easy to see that change is both possible and plausible.

Change is never easy.  Change is suppose to be hard and most importantly, change is suppose to take time.  While men in feminism still remains a new concept and may or may not sound particularly “normal” when rolling off the tips of our tongues, we, as new and continuing students and scholars of feminism and religion have to understand that this “vulnerability” we feel when welcoming a male student into the classroom or listening to their comments during discussion are suppose to feel strange.

But we also have to remember what it takes to get a man into the classroom and the world of feminism.  If a man joins in class discussion or takes a class in feminism, we owe it to the possibility of change, to listen.  If we have discovered anything by studying feminism throughout history, it is that giving up power is never easy, and that is what these men and women, in my opinion, are doing.

Men in feminism have to step back and listen first.  To create the change we want to see in the world we have to listen and act together and that is exactly what feminism is all about: taking the harsh and oppressive nature of a scary world and creating something beautiful for all of humanity to be proud of and work towards together.