Feminism Is Not Synonymous With Morality, Goodness or Rightness

Latest Supporter Submission:

To begin, its important that my readers know that I am anti-feminism. Being anti-feminism does not define me as a human being. I am also many other things. I am not particularly fond of being considered an “anti-feminist”. I’d rather be considered “pro equality”. Feminists are people (many of whom are good friends of mine) who I believe mean well but have bought into a deeply flawed and harmful ideology. They believe that they are doing good things for women and our world as a whole. I cannot agree with that, but I am not trying to villainize individual people who follow this movement. I am working to deconstruct, disassemble and replace feminism with an egalitarian, gender neutral campaign to help all people, regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation.

But, you might say… feminism IS pro equality already. Feminism already has whats best for both men and women in mind when it funds ad campaigns and charity events, creates social media content and when it heavily influences public policy. Feminism MEANS equality.

I strongly disagree and I’ll tell you why.Feminism spreads negative press about men and harms women by telling them that they are under constant threat of victimization from male sexist oppressors, objectifyers and rapists every single day (Everyday Sexism, #yesallwomen). Feminism uses slanted, incomplete statistical data (like the CDC study on sexual assault that conflates drunk sex with rape and does not include the definition of the rape of a man by a woman “forced to penetrate”) to spread false claims about female victimization by men that also exclude many male victims. Feminism by its very core definition tells the world that every man since the dawn of time has “oppressed” every beloved mother, daughter, sister, aunt and grandmother in their lives through patriarchal control. Women are powerless and victimized under feminism’s ideology. And men are oppressive, violent and sexually predatious.

And yes, feminism has drawn some much needed attention to the problems women face through awareness campaigns surrounding female victims of domestic violence, rape, FGM (female genital mutilation), sexual harassment on the job etc. But it ignores, downplays or often actively works to shut down matching advocacy for male victims of many of these crimes. Feminism wants to maintain a monopoly on money and sympathy for women only. Not for men.

And yet men in our culture suffer equally (if at times from different issues) than women. Men are much more likely than women to commit suicide, many times times more likely to die on the job. They are almost as likely to be violently abused by an intimate partner or to be sexually assaulted or raped. There are strict beauty standards for women that have them starving themselves and hating their bodies, but there are strict success standards for men that have them working 60+ hours a week at a dangerous and difficult job, away from their families in order to prove their worth as a provider. Each female concern has an equally important male counterpart, but feminism does not want the general public to know this.

I am tired of this ridiculous assumption in our culture that feminism = goodness and rightness. Feminism is a flawed and slanted ideology. It has positive sides and negative sides, just like any ideology or religion. If you’re an intelligent, well informed individual, you’d be hard pressed to find ANY organization, ideology or religion that is 100% moral, right and good. Morality itself is highly subjective, and all movements have varying political outlooks and specific agendas. Therefore, to claim that feminism is synonymous with goodness and what is best for women and the world is not only highly presumptuously naive, but also blatantly false. There is a heavy dark side to feminism that spreads lies and slander about men and women alike. It is a highly ideological way to look at the world, sex, gender and human interrelating, and should not be considered synonymous with a moral high ground of any sort, nor with what is best for women.

As an illustration, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) was once heralded for its work in fighting for animal rights. Unfortunately, as time went on, it was discovered that PETA is in fact a highly corrupt, violent organization filled with zealots who sanction terrorist attacks in the service of animal rights activism. want a less subtle example?  Christianity has long been considered synonymous with goodness and rightness by its proponents and yet it spawns groups such as the Westboro Baptist Church, the Crusades, anti gay conversion camps and countless wars and insurgencies in God’s name. Yes, it also does great work with the poor and homeless, and in building cohesive and loving communities, but just calling oneself “Christian” does not make one a good person, just as calling oneself “Atheist” does not make one morally corrupt.

And yet, whenever anyone, male or female speaks out, criticizing feminism (as an ideology), they are instantly considered an enemy of goodness. They are often immediately branded as a misogynist or as being blind and uneducated as to the REAL meaning of feminism. Rarely if ever do feminists stop to consider that being against feminism is NOT being against women. Nor are my anti-feminist beliefs based on a simple lack of education about the movement as a whole.

I have been reading feminist articles, watching feminist YouTube videos and listening to nuanced and detailed deconstructions of feminist ideologies for several years now. I am anything but ill informed or incompletely informed on the movement. To assume so is condescending. Also, I love women with all of my heart. I have many many amazing, intelligent, hilarious, loving, accomplished and beautiful (inside and out) female friends, many of them feminists themselves, and I care for them all deeply. I care for all humans. To imply that to be against a flawed, one sided, anti-male political ideology is to hate women is one of the most naive and ill informed false conflations imaginable.

So I would challenge any feminists who read this piece to take a long, hard look at your movement and at the critics of your movement who are female. We are all women. We are intelligent, open minded, creative, driven and amazing. Those who are anti-feminist should not be written off as self hating or ill informed. We are neither.

This article was written by: Fayerweather Douglas.

11 Comments on “Feminism Is Not Synonymous With Morality, Goodness or Rightness”

  1. Hello.

    This is my first comment od this page. I appologise for all linguistic mistakes I will probably make.

    “There are strict beauty standards for women that have them starving themselves and hating their bodies, but there are strict success standards for men that have them working 60+ hours a week at a dangerous and difficult job, away from their families in order to prove their worth as a provider.”

    As a Polish woman I have little knowledge on what AMERICAN feminism is. Yet I believe the problem with women feeling bad for not being beautiful and men feeling bad for not earning enough money is the result of your sick AMERICAN mentality, that either you are rich, popular and excel in almost everything, or you are ugly, unsuccessful and generally a – loser.

    “If you’re an intelligent, well informed individual, you’d be hard pressed to find ANY organization, ideology or religion that is 100% moral, right and good. Morality itself is highly subjective, and all movements have varying political outlooks and specific agendas”

    I wholeheartedly agree with you. That is why a rational individual should stay away from any movement which is corrupted with ideology.

    “As an illustration, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) was once heralded for its work in fighting for animal rights. Unfortunately, as time went on, it was discovered that PETA is in fact a highly corrupt, violent organization filled with zealots who sanction terrorist attacks in the service of animal rights activism.”

    Do you consider people who attack Japanese whalers terrorists? If you do, what do you think should be done to protect whales from Japanese whale hunters? Just an example of a problem with the so-called Animal Rights. (I don’t like this expression, just as I don’t like the expression Human Rights.)

    “Christianity has long been considered synonymous with goodness and rightness by its proponents and yet it spawns groups such as the Westboro Baptist Church, the Crusades, anti gay conversion camps and countless wars and insurgencies in God’s name.”

    Sure it does. But it seems the religion is more than OK in USA. 🙂