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Mary Lewis
Ms. Thomson
AP English Language and Composition
1/31/18
Has Feminism Fueled Man-Shaming?

Feminism is a venerated term thought history and modern day, whether out of fear or

hope. Feminism started as a way to insist on society that women be heard in a social platform. “It

was simply about creating gender equality” according to (harvardpolitics.com.) The feminist

ideal, in theory, is a simple idea. It is a movement fighting for gender equality, which seems

indisputable, but throughout history people have challenged this. Women fought tooth and nail

through history to receive common rights. Even today we see a that women only receive 78% of

what men earn annually. The relevance of feminism is extremely clear, but has it gone too far?

Through the pent up anger and rage pointed towards men, modern day feminism has turned into

a “who’s on top” battle of the sexes. It has turned into a world-wide shame of generalized men.

The reasons I have chosen to explain in this paper is why I believe feminism has led to man-

shaming through social media, and the victimology of women.

Women have so much to be proud of, a few decades ago they were fighting for the right

to vote and now a woman has not only ran for president but won the democratic vote. Through

everything good some people do still take it the extreme. For example, women in India have

started a movement that when their spouse upsets them in anyway they report them for domestic

violence and they are sent to prison. This trivial issue have given light to the fact that men need

more protection in court, and that the definition of feminism has turned into a belief that women

should be superior. According to (pri.org) “Most of such complaints are filed in the heat of the

moment over trivial issues,” such as arguments or drunkenness. The action that needs to be taken

in this matter is that social stigma, or the idea that women are objects and are less than men, and
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that all men are fascist and are fighting against the feminist movement, must be ended by

promoting peace over anger, and men as well as women must collectively come to a decision to

live equally.

Feminism has become an excuse to shame a certain sex for present and past events. We

must remember that it started as a movement to give women the right to vote and now it has

turned into a bra-burning, negative movement that causes people to turn from feminism out of

sheer embarrassment. This is because many women still believe they are victims to men, that by

putting down the male sex women will be treated equally, but this is not the case. During an

episode of “Think Tank” on PBS, associate professor of philosophy at Clark University,

Christina Sommers, says “The orthodox feminists are so carried away with victimology, with a

rhetoric of male-bashing that it's full of female chauvinists, if you will” (PBS). Some modern

feminists try to crush the male ego out of anger for the unfair social standards held for women

like becoming angry when a woman is not wowed by a man catcalling her, or expecting a

woman to look like supermodel. Although it is justified to be upset with the social stigmas put on

women such as the submissive behavior we are assigned to, but generalizing all men into one

category is unfair to the sex. Another issue with this theory is the hypocrisy of it all, women are

shaming men because they have belittled us in the past, its like fighting fire with fire. This

statement becomes even more true according to the fact that a lot of men actually are feminists,

in fact 33% of men identify themselves as feminists. Of course this number could be high but

according to the same article 43% of people associate feminism with the word “angry” so being

against the whole male sex is not promoting gender equality (Poll).

In our modern era, social media is prominent in most of our lives. It dictates how we

receive our information and sometimes what we believe or deem reliable. Because of this, it has
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a major impact on all of our lives and how we treat others. “One reason for this trend [meaning

radical feminism] is social media, with its instant amplification of personal narratives and its

addiction to outrage. We live in a time when jerky male attempts at cyber-flirting can be

collected on a blog called Straight White Boys Texting (which carries a disclaimer that prejudice

against white males is not racist or sexist, since it is not directed at the oppressed) and then

deplored in an article titled “Dear Men: This Is Why Women Have Every Right To Be Disgusted

With Us”. (Young) Cyber-flirting has become just a given social encounter. The reason for the

usually awkward attempts to flirt on the male side of things is because women are naturally more

socially skilled than the average man, women seem to use this as an advantage too make fun of

men for their short-comings in flirtatious behavior (Young). Seeing this as a white male come

up on your dashboard is an extremely hypocritical approach to the feminist movement, proven

by the fact that the movement is suppose to promote equality among the sexes, not trying to

degrade each other. What is really eye-catching in this article is the statement that its okay to

make fun of white males because they are not oppressed Oppression can come in all forms, it

doesn’t have to be extremely clear. What feminism has done to the male community is

oppressive with all the negativity put onto the whole gender. Like I stated previously, a lot of

men are feminists and do support gender equality, so scrutinizing everything a man does such as

“flirt” with a girl is flat out degrading. Though it may be awkward to read and embarrassing for

some, but it is not to be taken as a degradation of women. Instead this should be treated as if a

girl were to begin to “flirt” with a guy, instead making a spectacle it should be treated with

respect. Turning something as innocent as a high school crush into a reason for all men to be

ashamed of themselves is an example of a movement gone way too far. These examples bring
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light to the fact that social media has encouraged the shaming of men, and continued the process

that is ruining the feminist movement’s reputation.

In no way do I agree with how women are sometimes treated in society, the harassment,

sexism, and oppression towards the female sex must end. We all have the ability to fight for

whatever we believe in, but there are certain ways to break a particular stigma, and certain ways

to grow it. What the feminist movement must fight for now is the breaking of the stigma,

referring to the association with hate and anger, alienating a justified movement, as well as fight

for equal rights. According to a post by College News “The way my boyfriend (who does believe

in gender equality) described it was ‘“Feminism feels like being yelled at for something I didn’t

personally do.” And he has a good point. Some people think about feminism in words like

“patriarchal society” and “female oppression” and “rape culture.” Then you’re part of the

oppressive patriarchal society and it’s your fault women suffer from economic, social, and

political discrimination.”’ (Ballard) Here’s the underlying opinion surrounding feminism: neither

men nor women are superior, and we need both genders to be empowered and cooperative.”

Sometimes the feminist movement migrates towards putting shame on a gender that shamed

them for so long. Because of this men see the injustice and oppress women even more. It is

almost like a pendulum, it swings too far one way and men are raping women and fighting to

keep them out of office, then it swings too far the other way and women are promoting

victimology and bashing the male gender. We find peace in knowing that one day the pendulum

will fall still and everyone will have the same wages, social standards, and overall rights.

Work Cited

“The Evolution of Feminism.” Harvard Political Review The Evolution of Feminism Comments,
harvardpolitics.com/harvard/evolution-feminism/.
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“Indian Court Rules That Men Need Protection from Women Making Unsubstantiated Domestic
Harassment Claims.” Public Radio International, www.pri.org/stories/2017-08-15/indian-court-
rules-men-need-protection-women-making-unsubstantiated-domestic.

PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript132.html.

Young, Cathy. “Feminists Treat Men Badly. It's Bad for Feminism.” The Washington Post, WP
Company, 30 June 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/30/feminists-
treat-men-badly-its-bad-for-feminism/?utm_term=.8411b0c6d351.

Ballard, Jamie. “The Issues with Modern Feminism, and How to Fix Them.” College News, 10
Nov. 2017,
www.collegenews.com/article/the_issues_with_modern_feminism_and_how_to_fix_them/.

“Poll: Feminism in the U.S.” The Washington Post, WP Company,

www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/feminism-project/poll/.