Feminism has also done a lot for me as a guy. Since Michelle is my full partner, we as a couple, have a lot more freedom in how we live our lives. She's not my dependent in any sense. Ultimately this means we're far richer we otherwise would be and neither partner feels put upon because we both take responsibility for what needs doing. There's the usual spats about whether fabric softner actually does anything or its laundry snake oil, but that's pretty petty in the scheme of things.
The situtation with feminism in the US seems bound up in the image over substance approach to everything we do in the country. I think a lot of working class people see feminism as a hollow intellectual platitude that doesn't actually deliver anything. The other problem is that the media here loves to go with the most flamboyantly extreme representatives of any movement, totally skewing perceptions. Feminists still get painted a bra burning militant vegan lesbians. And then there's some hypocrisy going on as well. Several of our friends declare themselves to be rabid feminists. When they married, they refused to take their husbands names upon marriage. Why should they? Michelle opted to go with my surname and that was her decision. These women were aghast that she should do such a thing as sacrifcing her identity and become an appendage of me. Well, I moved with Michelle to further her career and Michelle also contributes her energy and income to the marriage as much as do. Meanwhile, our so called feminist friends are totally dependent on their husbands for income and even emotional stability. There's alot of women who embrace the style, but fail to understand the substance and people generally see through that. Unfortunately with many progressive movements in the US, people tend to go with the style as way to feel good about themselves but fail to make the deep changes in their lives.
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The situtation with feminism in the US seems bound up in the image over substance approach to everything we do in the country. I think a lot of working class people see feminism as a hollow intellectual platitude that doesn't actually deliver anything. The other problem is that the media here loves to go with the most flamboyantly extreme representatives of any movement, totally skewing perceptions. Feminists still get painted a bra burning militant vegan lesbians. And then there's some hypocrisy going on as well. Several of our friends declare themselves to be rabid feminists. When they married, they refused to take their husbands names upon marriage. Why should they? Michelle opted to go with my surname and that was her decision. These women were aghast that she should do such a thing as sacrifcing her identity and become an appendage of me. Well, I moved with Michelle to further her career and Michelle also contributes her energy and income to the marriage as much as do. Meanwhile, our so called feminist friends are totally dependent on their husbands for income and even emotional stability. There's alot of women who embrace the style, but fail to understand the substance and people generally see through that. Unfortunately with many progressive movements in the US, people tend to go with the style as way to feel good about themselves but fail to make the deep changes in their lives.