If you have been following the news lately you may feel discouraged about whether men can be feminists. From George Will’s horrible column saying liberal colleges are trying to give rape and sexual assault victims “a coveted status that confers privileges” to some of the disgusting responses to the #yesallwomen twitter hashtag that was a response to the Elliot Roger misogyny fueled shooting rampage. One of the most notable horrible responses to #yesallwomen was the Washington Post saying if women were just married they would decrease their chances of encountering violence (psst please tell my ex husband that). ?Not to mention any number of attacks on women’s rights and statements by lawmakers and pundits about “welfare moms,” “single moms,” or “wild college girls”. It seems to never end.?
There is hope in the world. The young men featured in the video discovered feminism through a class in high school. They see the value in an intersectional movement for gender equality. Their teacher,?Ileana Jim?nez,has been teaching feminism to New York City high school students for several years. She engaged them in thinking about not only what it means to be a feminist but shows them real world examples of the need for gender equality and intersectional activism.
If you have never heard of intersectionality one young man summed it up nicely:
“One of the biggest concepts we learned in the class is this idea of intersectionality. The idea that feminism goes beyond just equality for women. It’s equality between races, gender, class, sexual orientation, and so forth.“
For me, the best part of the video isn’t just that these are young men embracing feminism. It’s that they are a diverse group of young men who understand what it means to be a feminist beyond a slogan. Teens are smarter than we elders often give them credit for. We just have to engage them.
Let us know what you think on the Liberal America Facebook page.
Watch Video Below:
Edited/Published by: SB
