Is Egalitarian the way to go?
For a very long time, I considered myself a Feminist. I associated with others who self identified the same way... and we worked toward the idea of gender equality and fairness. Righting wrongs, having intelligent dialog and doing all the things a good Feminist should do. We were fighting the good fight, and so, Life was good.
One day I noticed something in a Feminist blog I'd been frequenting for years, I hadn't seen before. I don't know if it was because I simply wasn't paying attention, I'd been willfully blind, or perhaps it simply hadn't been there before... someone was expressing man-hate. And by man-hate, I don't mean complaining about male-entitlement or the patriarchy... I mean this person wanted to commit acts of violence against men... wanted to cripple them in male-part-snipping emasculating ways.
My initial reaction was that this had to be some extreme anti-Feminism person trying to pull some form of bait and switch... someone trying to give the Feminist movement a bad name. I figured, it was just a troll, and that my fellow Feminists should see right through that ploy and rebuff and then expel this disruptive force that had somehow squirreled its way onto the blog. After all, Feminism was about gender equality... not about bringing down the male gender, but raising women everywhere. Then, the unthinkable happened.
Women and Feminists all over the blog started voicing similar notions, and joked about various things to do with "Liberated parts". Feminists that I respected where talking about flying said parts from flag poles in similar fashion to how bra used to be. I was stunned. I couldn't bring myself to formulate a reply to what, I was sure, were anti-Feminist ideas. I did the only smart thing I could think to do... I shut off the computer and found something else to do, hoping that all this anti-male hostility would be a mere memory tomorrow.
The following day, I'd managed to keep myself busy for a majority of the day... subconsciously putting off checking on my daily blog sites. I had housework that needed tending to, a car that needed washing, and I'm sure there was a bill I needed to pay online...I was stalling. I quickly ran out of tasks with which to distract myself, and found myself staring at my un-powered computer monitor. It must have been a good couple of minutes before I forced myself to take a seat at the desk and begin the process of powering on my computer.
I told myself, yesterday was a fluke. An aberration. Feminism is not about hate or division. The very foundations of feminism are about fairness, equality and inclusion. Some part of my mind was staring at me from a recessed shadow, mocking me with a withering stare. My hands literally started to sweat as my desktop wallpaper came on, and the Internet Explorer icon popped into existence. I glanced around the screen looking for a reason to not click on that icon. Then, I could swear I heard that shadow-lurking part of my mind say in acerbic annoyance: Stop putting it off. Go there and get it over with. So I did.
As soon as I got to the blog, I was assaulted by a whole host of vitriolic thread titles. I tensed.
Maybe it was just a title and nothing more. Yeah right said my mind. I clicked through.
It was like stepping into a war zone. A small handful of Feminists calling for reason were under an absolute hate-filled onslaught by numerous others I’d held in high esteem. As I watched, the smaller group was being attacked ideologically, personally, directly and indirectly. The sheer volume of toxic comments pushed all but one remaining reasonable Feminist to stop posting. After perhaps ten minutes, even that one stopped posting. I checked other threads only to find lesser degrees of what I’d just witnessed.
It was as if someone had flicked a switch, and many of the people you thought you knew, suddenly took on a Jekyll and Hyde mentality… and Mr. Hyde had just come out to play. Male hatred and loathing was everywhere. This was not what I became a Feminist for. This was antithetical to what I’d thought Feminism was. I was lost… adrift. If I wasn’t a Feminist, what was I?
Well, it turns out the answer might be very simple.
I did some research online, and stumbled across a word. One I’d heard before, but never gave much thought to: Egalitarianism. In short, it is the line of thought that favors equality for all people. That means women, LGBT, those of color, and even men in some cases.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egalitarianism
So, that leads me to this question: Is Egalitarianism a better option than Feminism alone? I don’t necessarily suggest it as a replacement for Feminism, but more as a way to stand against all injustices regardless of type.
I welcome your thoughts.
= new reply since forum marked as read
as relayed by another DUer, though I forget their name or where they posted that, exactly. I'll link to it if I can get around to searching again, and if I find it).