Women do not need moral and ethical motivation in order to support feminism, because we are the beneficiaries of this movement (that is, it is beneficial to us for selfish reasons). This is obvious, however, the idea of feminism as a movement motivated by humanity and the pursuit of justice is widely promoted, in other words, feminism appeals to sympathy, empathy, pity for the weak and oppressed.

Why is this happening? Because feminism in its current form has its target audience of men, no matter how paradoxical it may sound. After all, it is for men that moral and ethical motivation is necessary to support the women's movement, since this movement does not bring them personal benefits, except indirectly, but this is not enough for a man to support feminism with active involvement.

Why do feminists appeal to men? Because it is men who have concentrated almost all power resources, and, accordingly, men determine public opinion on any issue, no matter how unpleasant it may sound. Women, being in the absolute majority identified with men, adopt these “socially approved” views, so it makes no sense to focus on them as a target audience.

It seems to be logical. But the problem is that the percentage of empathetic men in any case will be too low to seriously affect the situation, and, as a rule, men who are subject to “moral” influence are low-status in the male hierarchy, where sociopathic traits and attitudes towards women are welcomed only in the context of use. That is, with all their desire, they have no opportunity to change the situation.

There is no need to build illusions that you will be able to reach out to most men, since male gender socialization, like alcohol, first of all turns off those centers that are able to fight it. This is empathy for women, the perception of women as people. Even for “good guys”, women remain “other”, incomprehensible creatures and incomprehensible problems who “yell on the Internet” and don’t know what they want, since all rights are already equal. Men do not see a problem in the current social situation of women, since it is perceived by them as natural. Complaining about it is like complaining about gravity.

As the great Simone de Beauvoir wrote, men argue that women are equal to a man and they have nothing to demand, and at the same time that women will never be equal to men and their demands are in vain. Yes, they do not see a contradiction in this, but all because male logic is subject primarily to their interests, and not to the laws of cause-and-effect thinking. Therefore, it is useless to even try to address them as in the target audience and put pressure on humanistic feelings, which they are mostly incapable of. This will only lead to them imposing their own goals on us, setting various support conditions (for example, that we should not be too aggressive towards men, emphasize that "violence has no gender" (but it does), fight against military conscription, etc. We all know what feminism becomes when it starts working with men.

Feminism should focus only on women. If some especially empathetic men are imbued, it's good, but they should not determine our agenda and the way we deliver information.


Author: Philosopher's Stone of Artémis
Translator: Yulia N.