One theme that came up several times throughout the Unit 1 readings was that feminism is not only for women, it is for men as well. When I think of feminism, the first thing that comes to my mind is women. However, after reading through the articles for Unit 1, I started to think a lot more about how men contribute to feminism. Specifically, I started to think as feminism as a fight for equality among genders, not just a fight for the rights of women. Because I was so intrigued by the reoccurring theme of a man’s role in feminism, I decided to read the supplementary reading “Why Men need Feminism” by Katy Kreitler.
This reading was a much different style than most of the other readings from this unit, as I found it more lighthearted and easy to read. In addition, this post summed up a lot of what I had been thinking about throughout the unit in regards to how men come into the picture of feminism. I liked that the article started out with what many of the other readings had pointed out, that men oftentimes disregard feminism as something they can’t be a part of because they aren’t female. Katy Kreitler, the author, quickly challenged that by asking a series of questions to raise awareness that gender inequality is not just about women. As I read through the list of questions she asked to spark the idea that men need feminism, I thought about my close guy friends. As I know them very well, I know that they would answer yes to more than one of these questions. Thus, I found the article to be very realistic and relatable.
Next, Katy Kreitler moved on to speak about how men not only need feminism, but feminism can also help them in their daily lives. One of the themes of gender equality is that everyone should be able to be themselves, without the constraints of gender roles. Men and women both need to break through these barriers. While reading through this post, I became even more intrigued by how feminism includes men and women, and I was more convinced as to how feminism helps men. Specifically, I agree that men need feminism to break free from the pressure of living as the most “masculine” man. Overall, I think this is a very important topic to talk about. I think including men in the conversation of feminism is crucial for gender equality to be understood and appreciated by every one.