Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!bionet!ig!ames!elroy!usc!orion.cf.uci.edu!uci-ics!drc@beach.cis.ufl.EDU From: drc@beach.cis.ufl.EDU (David Cabana) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: re: definition of feminism, can a man be a feminist? Message-ID: <16898@paris.ics.uci.edu> Date: 6 Jun 89 21:53:45 GMT Sender: news@paris.ics.uci.edu Reply-To: Organization: UF CIS Department Lines: 36 Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu [Apologies if this one appears more than once -- I had some trouble sending it out... --Cindy] In article <4960@umd5.umd.edu> cwilliam@umd5.umd.edu (Christopher Williamson) writes: > > I would like to know your feelings on wether a man can ever be considered >a feminist, and if so what exactly defines feminism. ... some stuff omitted ... > I have been told by different people, men and women, that "men will never >fully understand," which I agree with; however, whites can never fully >understand the plight of the blacks earlier in our nation's history and, yet >many prominent whites helped in the struggle to correct injustices. > If one accepts the position that a man cannot be a feminist, then one accepts the position that a person's gender can render that person incapable of holding (even perhaps understanding) certain beliefs. This is sexism, pure and simple. Similarly, the claim that a person is incapable of understanding something because of that person's race is racism, pure and simple. > As a male supporter of women's rights, I often get in this arguement. >Being the only male in some upper level "female studies" courses at the Univ. >of Maryland, I constantly find myself being besieged with little or no >defense as to why I have a "right" to take women's studies courses and if >I can truely call myself a feminist, or even a supporter of women's rights. It strikes me as ironic that (presumed) feminists, of all people, would question your right to take a class because of your sex. Bigotry has many forms. David Cabana