With over 1.12 million followers and over 7,000 demeaning tweets, @MeninistTweet has managed to gain a massive following by supposedly mocking anti-feminists through their “obviously” sarcastic Twitter account.
However, “meninism,” whether it is taken light-heartedly or not, has major consequences.
The meninist Twitter account tweets content similar to “make me a sandwich” jokes, as well as memes encouraging double standards and slut-shaming, or disparaging sexual activity.
However, stating that the account is a parody simply shows a dangerously blurred line between satire and sincerity.
Meninism is not just a satirical joke. The account constantly promotes misconceptions about feminism and belittles women, along with the actions taken by feminists worldwide.
Furthermore, by encouraging meninism, support for anti-feminists, who believe that feminism is out to destroy or oppress all males (and not just the negative patriarchal society that we live in), is developed.
Logically, the question raised in response to this is: why would feminism, a movement sparked by oppression, aim to oppress another group of people?
To imply this devalues the efforts made by feminists in the past, present and future.
Social studies teacher and National Organization for Women (NOW) Club sponsor Adjua Adama said, “There’s always been this kind of issue in any group that has been marginalized.
These reactionary groups tend to rise out of fear. The fear is if you prevent people from achieving their full potential, then the alternative in a lot of people’s minds is “if these people were marginalized and I was a group that benefited, then I’m going to be now marginalized in order to allow this other group to flourish.a�� That’s where a lot of the backlash comes from.”
Meninism is arguably on such of these groups. It often suggests that the movement is about disparaging men or placing females above them in society. Feminism is not what meninism has made it out to be.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, “[Feminism is] the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men.”
That’s right. You heard it here. Equality. So many men and women turn to meninism and more serious movements, such as equalism, due to the major misconception that feminists believe that women are above men.
Nevertheless, feminism does not only fight against issues affecting women, such as the wage gap and sexual abuse, but also against issues that affect men, such as societal standards and the fact that, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, more than one in four men in the US experience domestic violence in their lifetime.
Furthermore, modern feminism also makes a point to stand for underrepresented and misrepresented communities, such as the transgender community and women of color.
National Organization for Women (NOW) Club co-president Lily Taylor said, “I think feminism is extremely important. It supports men, women and everything in between.”
Still, many men as well as women prefer not to identify as feminists due to the stigma surrounding feminism, the same stigma that meninism encourages. This is because they believe that in equality, but fear the idea of being seen as a “feminazi.”
Sure, there are radical feminists. There are always more intense members of a group, whether that be an extreme “social justice warrior”, who makes everything politically correct, or the “overly-passionate” member of the football team, who only ever talks about his sport. These examples do not define the entire group of people.
Feminism is not about the radicalism that so often charactizes it. When meninists and other groups demonize feminism because of that, then feminism is tainted for all.