User:Rashelrojas/Men in feminism

Parker Pillsbury and other abolitionist men held feminist views and openly identified as feminist, using their influence to promote the rights of women and slaves respectively

Parker Pillsbury was born on September 22, 1809 in Hamilton, MA. His parents were Oliver Pillsbury and Anna Smith. He died on July 7, 1898 in Concord, NH. When he was little, he went to district schools until he attended Gilmanton Theological Seminary to graduate in 1838. After a year he became a minister at the Congregational church at Loudon, NH. Later on, he married Sarah H. Sargent. With his wife he only had one child, Helen Pillsbury. He became Massachusetts Abolitionist and woman suffrage leader. His Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles was history of the New England Abolitionist movement.

In the early 1980s, the men's rights campaign emerged in America in response to the feminist movement. Activists for men's rights refer to themselves as "masculinists" or are labeled as such.The men's rights movement and mythopoetic men's movement is considered part of an antifeminist response by some feminists.

The MRM consists of groups and individuals that focus on social issues and mainly on cases where boys and men get discriminated. In this movement some of the common topics are parenting, suicides, domestic violence but against men, health policies, circumcision, and overall education. The MRM has received criticism and others had said it is seen as backlash against feminism. These same people have titled the men in this group as hateful and violent. The Southern Poverty Law Center categorized the MRM as part of a hate ideology under “male supremacy”. The movement was described as misogynistic, meaning hated or prejudiced against women or girls.

The men's liberation movement began in the early 1970s as consciousness-raising groups to help men free themselves from the limits of sex roles. Proponents of men's liberation argued that male bonding is a mechanism to conform men's identities to a single sense of masculinity, which reinforces patriarchy. In lieu of such bonding, the men's liberation movement called for open acknowledgment of the costs of masculinity: men's entrapment in their fixed role as the breadwinner of the nuclear family and the taboo against men expressing emotions. Most significantly, this movement intended to make it acceptable for men to be open about their emotions while maintaining their masculinity.

The men’s liberation movement is a social movement which was started in the late 1960-70s. Men’s liberation activists are generally nice to feminists’ standpoints. In more detail the men’s liberation movement stresses the negative portions of the traditional masculinity. And overall, the men’s liberation movement and the men’s rights movement are totally different. The MRM is more of unequal or unfair treatment of men. The MLM is kind of a liberation for men from stereotypes and things that prevent them from expressing their feelings and emotions just because they are “men”. Feminist and gender scholars believe that the MLM was created among heterosexual middle-class men to respond to the cultural changes happening back then.

There is debate within feminism over whether or not men can be feminists. Some feminists, like Simone de Beauvoir in her seminal text The Second Sex, argue that men cannot be feminists because of the intrinsic differences between the sexes, Separatist feminists also hold this view, arguing that only by rejecting the masculine perspective entirely can feminism allow women to define themselves on their own terms, and that the involvement of men in the feminist movement will inculcate the values of patriarchy into any social change. Some writers hold that men do not suffer the same oppression as women, and as such cannot comprehend women's experience, and as such cannot constructively contribute to feminist movements or concepts

Many feminists believe that men can’t be feminists. This is said because men don’t get the full experience of being a real “female” or “feminist”. For example, it is not the same because men don’t have vaginas and they simply are not females. Females have to go through stereotypes and discriminations unlike men. Plus, women just can’t see men as being feminists because in this society today men think they have too much power and privilege over in relation to women. This means that men automatically assume the dominant role just because they think that they are better than feminist activists.

I want to thank Ms. Elizabeth Salmon for training us for this wiki assignment.