Meninism

Meninism or menism is the belief system of various groups, including the men's rights movement, Incorporating men's rights and equal rights for men and women.

History

The term meninism was used in the early 2000s to describe a male who opposed sexism and supported women's right for equality in society, politics and at work. By the next decade, the term was used on social media to make jokes which mocked and criticised radical feminism. In 2013, the BBC reported that the hashtag #MeninistTwitter was being used on Twitter, first to share jokes about feminism, but later to share more serious difficulties facing modern men.

Meaning

Menism involves advocating for men’s rights. The term now sometimes refers to a movement promoting awareness of the issues affecting men, opposition to the oppression men face in the 21st century, opposition to feminism, and modern dating. Women can sometimes also identify as meninists.

According to Martin Daubney of The Telegraph, some meninists have used the term to discuss serious issues affecting men, such as domestic violence against men; fathers' rights and divorce issues; and disproportionate male prison sentences, suicide rates, and rates of homelessness. According to Radhika Sanghani of The Telegraph, the hashtag is most commonly used on Twitter to mock feminism, but has also been used as a way to draw attention to men's issues, similar to "The Red Pill" forum on Reddit. Sanghani says that the movement's reaction to feminism is based more on the label than feminism's views. Abigail James writing for Catholic Online said that while meninism raises legitimate issues which should be taken seriously, its heart is based on a misinterpretation of the meaning of feminism. Antifeminism is also associated with the Meninist movement.

Usage

Mintified, an India-based right-wing media website, started the #BlameOneNotAll hashtag to discourage generalisations of men. According to Victoria Richards of The Independent, the campaign was part of the meninist movement. The campaign received backlash for shifting focus away from the victims of rape and implying that basic decency should be rewarded. In an opinion piece for The Economic Times Shephali Bhatt criticised the use of the movement and International Men's Day to sell deodorant, saying "...for an initiative to become a social phenomena, it needs to be rooted in truth. And the truth is that [men are] a sufficiently privileged gender, comparatively."

The hashtags have also been used for T-shirts and similar, with self-portraits of people wearing the clothes widely shared on social media. Several outlets reported that the clothes and images were widely mocked, and often Photoshopped sarcastically.

The term is used in India to perpetuate the traditionalist subjugation of women. A section of Indian male YouTubers have used meninist rhetoric to promote harassment of women and to justify violence against them.

James Millar used the phrase in the New Statesman stating that for meninists "fighting, cat-calling and barbecuing is basically all [they’ve] got".

References

  1. ↑ "Meninist: Men supporting the women's movement". feminist.com. Archived from the original on 8 February 2001. Retrieved 25 June 2015. See also: this link.
  2. ↑ Goldrick-Jones, Amanda (2002). "Profeminism on the World Wide Web: Meninist - United States". Men who Believe in Feminism. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. p. 179. ISBN 9780275968229.
  3. 1 2 3 Zand, Benjamin (20 December 2013). "#BBCtrending: Feminism v Meninism". BBC News. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Daubney, Martin (29 December 2014). "Will 2015 be the year of meninism?". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  5. 1 2 Feeney, Nolan (19 January 2015). "This Is What Happens When You Show Off Your 'Meninist' T-Shirt". TIME. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  6. 1 2 Lynch, Alison (25 June 2015). "Women disillusioned with feminism are turning to meninism". Metro. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  7. ↑ Sanghani, Radhika (1 February 2015). "Feminists v Meninists: The labels we could all afford to ditch". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  8. ↑ James, Abigail (19 December 2014). "Feminism takes a sharp hit as men fight back with Meninism". Catholic Online. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  9. ↑ Lin, Jie Liang (2017), "Antifeminism Online: MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way)", Digital Environments, Ethnographic Perspectives Across Global Online and Offline Spaces, Transcript Verlag, pp. 77–96, ISBN 9783837634976, JSTOR j.ctv1xxrxw.9
  10. ↑ Richards, Victoria (25 May 2015). "'Don't blame all men for rape' campaign backfires spectacularly". The Independent. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  11. ↑ Bhatt, Shephali (26 November 2014). "How meninism campaigns can explain gender inequality against men better". Economic Times. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  12. ↑ Warren, Rossalyn (19 January 2015). "People Are Wearing Anti-Feminist "Meninist" T-Shirts And The Internet Has Responded Amusingly". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  13. ↑ Peters, Lucia (20 January 2015). "#Meninist T-Shirts Got a Photoshop Makeover Thanks to Twitter, and It's Glorious". Bustle.com. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  14. ↑ https://scroll.in/article/740800/the-silly-but-growing-belief-that-indian-culture-is-becoming-too-feminist-its-not
  15. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/c/PeepOyeFame
  16. ↑ Millar, James (15 January 2019). "The Gillette ad campaign shows Piers Morgan is wrong – men are getting better". New Statesman. Retrieved 23 January 2019.