BY ERIC MULLIGAN

In print | Published October 7, 2004

I am writing in response to the piece in the Sept. 23 edition of The Phoenix that gave a male perspective on a Feminist Majority meeting (“Feminist fun: I love women, too”, pg. 11). Although I admit that this article was one of the factors that led me to attend a Feminist Majority meeting myself, I feel it necessary to give a more serious male perspective on the Feminist Majority and on feminism in general.

It took me a while to realize it, but I am a feminist. Maybe this realization took such a long time because of my misconceptions about feminism. During my senior year of high school, however, my feminist AP European History teacher taught me gradually that feminism is less about hating men and more about equal rights for women. I also decided not to use the term “feminazi” when I found out that Rush Limbaugh had coined it.

Speaking of Rush Limbaugh, I also figured out that people who spoke out against feminism tended to be people whose political opinions I really didn’t like — people like Jerry Falwell, Ann Coulter, Rick Santorum and other such self-appointed arbiters of morality. Eventually, I deduced that this negative correlation between these hot-air bags’ views on feminism and my views on them was no coincidence. Feminism, I realized, is inextricably bound to several political issues about which I care, and I usually take the same side on these issues as do most feminists.

For example, as a liberal, secularist Jew, I believe firmly in church-state separation as mandated in the Bill of Rights. Many who do not believe in this principle also object to feminism because feminism rejects the “traditional”, domestic, subservient role that the religious right would have women serve. Church-state separation also encompasses other gender and sexuality issues, such as abortion, censorship and sex education, on which the religious right take a “moral” stance and I take a liberationist stance. Thus, I found myself siding with feminists frequently even before I had had my misconceptions about feminism cleared up.

Of course, I also support feminism simply because it, or at least the brand of it that Swarthmore’s Feminist Majority practices, affirms gender equality, a principle that (thanks in part to my feminist mother) I also affirm. Because of the equally important roles that men and women have played in my life, there is no doubt in my mind that they should receive equal treatment from me. If more men associated feminism with gender equality, I am certain that there would be more male feminists.

I admit that I was very nervous as I walked into Kohlberg for the Feminist Majority meeting on Monday night. As I had expected, I was the only boy there, and because most of the meeting was spent planning events, I did not have very much input. I talked to a couple of the members after the meeting, though, and they told me that they usually discuss issues related to feminism for at least part of a typical meeting. One of the members told me that the group would be glad to have a male perspective on some of these issues, so I told her that I would come to another one of their meetings.

What I am trying to say is that there are good reasons for men to be feminists. After all, feminist perspectives include defending our Constitution and subverting the authority of groups who would deny many freedoms both to men and to women. At a politically active school like Swarthmore, feminist causes are, I would argue, among the most important ones for socially conscious students to support.

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