Published: Good Men Project (May 26, 2015)
The chances are pretty good that women’s issues will be front-and-center in the 2016 presidential election… and we may even have a female candidate!
From the moment Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential elections, polls have consistently ranked Hillary Clinton at the top of potential Democratic presidential candidates for 2016. Indeed, even if she wasn’t in the race, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has also placed highly among possible contenders (even though she has disavowed any candidacy next year). Beyond that, with the success of the Democrats’ focus on a so-called “war on women” during the last few elections and the rise of cyberfeminism as an exciting new front in the women’s rights movement, it is clear that women’s issues are going to be front-and-center in the upcoming national political contest.
What role should men play in all of this? Here are three quick guidelines:
1. We need to avoid sexist language.
As Scott Bixby of Mic brilliantly outlined, Clinton was on the receiving end of a great deal of coded sexism during her last presidential campaign in 2008. Buzz words like “nagging,” “shrill,” and “bitchy” are used not to make legitimate points about her policies or character, but disparage her on the basis of her gender. While it behooves everyone to denounce this kind of rhetoric when it crops up, the obligation is particularly strong with men precisely because we aren’t the targets of the prejudice. After all, it is easy to expect those who are victimized by a certain form of discrimination to stand up to it; when those who aren’t directly impacted also speak out, however, it truly makes a statement.
Similarly…
2. We need to stop discussing women’s issues using sexist language.
Although I personally support federal contraception coverage, I can respect that there are those who will disagree with me for legitimate (if in my opinion incorrect) reasons – a belief in free market economics, a broader opposition to the Affordable Care Act, etc. That said, there have been far too many occasions when supporters of federal contraception are characterized as “sluts” or in some other way attacked in a gender-based fashion. This tendency is hardly limited to health care reform either; while I can understand people opposing abortion because they believe it is murder (although I don’t share that position), it is reprehensible when they segue to attacking women for being sexually active.
While you are allowed to dissent from the feminist position on an important issue without fear of having your motives attacked, you deserve to be blasted the moment you start playing with misogynistic tropes to make your point.
The bottom line is that, while you are allowed to dissent from the feminist position on an important issue without fear of having your motives attacked, you deserve to be blasted the moment you start playing with misogynistic tropes to make your point. This is because…
3. As men, we don’t get it.
This is perhaps the most difficult point to explain, but it is without question the most important. As men, we have benefited from a wide range of gender privileges from the day we were born: We are less likely to be judged based solely on our appearance, to fear being raped, to be paid fairly for our work, etc. As a result, when it comes to issues pertaining to women’s rights, there is a visceral level of understanding that we will always lack.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that we can’t intellectually understand the points that feminists are making; the capacity of rational thought, as well as empathy, exists within all of us. At the same time, it is essential to realize that we are at a turning point in the history of gender relations, and those who have spent so long on the wrong side of that unjust power dynamic are going to have understandable sensitivities that we can’t grasp.
This is true for all members of traditionally oppressed groups – be they racial, religious, gender-based, or otherwise. It just so happens that the 2016 presidential election is likely to be a milestone for women… and good men everywhere will have an important role to play in it.