 simply blot out that part of it; you cannot erase that part of our history, to make it easier, simpler, or nicer to think about. How is it — that the lack of male participation in the feminist movement is seen as the problem, and the fault, of feminists? Why is it — that so many people seem to believe that the negative image that men have today, is the fault of feminists? I think it’s wonderful if men want to get involved in the struggle for equality and freedom for women. Why would we assume they need to be invited? Why have they waited to be invited? I believe men should — and should want to — step in and step forward to prove their commitment — and, in effect, prove themselves. Sadly, we cannot give them the benefit of the doubt. Sadly, every good man does have something to prove. That, in my mind, is possibly the biggest way in which patriarchy affects men negatively.
Why didn’t UN Women select a man to be the spokesperson for a campaign like HeForShe? Why does a women’s rights organisation believe that the work of getting men involved in feminism is their responsibility? Why did those men — celebrities, mostly — who are now openly supporting HeForShe, wait for Emma Watson to invite them to join a struggle that’s been going on for hundreds of years, and affects every single one of us, every day?
Campaigns like HeForShe only fix in place and reassert existing misconceptions, stereotypes and deliberately unsound interpretations about the feminist struggle and about feminists; though Watson says that feminists are not ‘man-haters’, pretty much everything else she says simply reasserts several age-old misogynistic ideas about women who fight for their rights. It undermines the hard work of the brave women and men who have fought the fight, and achieved so much for us all.