The Utility of Restricting the Term Feminism to Women

[Spider Jerusalem]

42. How I see the distinction:

As something that can be more or less summed up by the difference between other ideologies which have small-i and capital-I versions. See "democrat"; the common noun refers to a supporter of democracy, the proper noun to a member of the Democratic Party. So...men can be small-f "feminists" in the sense of believing in gender equality, equal pay for equal work, women's rights, and some recognition of the problems of endemic sexism, sexual objectification, and gender discrimination in a society that's still male-dominated and where the default perspective for discussion of any issue is a male one. This is not dissimilar in many ways to the issues of civil rights for black and LGBT people; a white person can join the NAACP, or a heterosexual person can join GLAAD, but they don't actually "get" it, and can't. They may think they do, they may understand it on an intellectual level, but they can walk away from it. It's one thing to say "Racism is a terrible thing", "sexism is a terrible thing", etc, but you can say those things and still be somewhat blind to the actual nature of how bad those things can be, when you've never been pulled over and frisked by the cops for being black in the rich part of town, never had to fend off crude and unwanted sexual advances and leers and been judged more on how you look than how competent you are at your job, never had to go and scrub off where someone spray-painted "DIE OF AIDS FAGGOT" on the front of your house. A man can be a "feminist" in the sense of supporting feminism, yes, but can't presume to speak for women on the issues it involves.