Feminism is believed to be a movement which only talks about the rights of women and large number of men view feminism as a threat and as a movement started against the men. People fail to understand that feminism actually questions the patriarchal structure and gender specific setup which promotes inequality and suppresses women and aims to fight against it to promote equality. When we talk about feminism we talk about equality, freedom, identification of gender binary roles and structures and trying to smash it for the benefit of all the genders including men.
You might be wondering how feminism benefits men? Well, it helps men in many ways, men too suffer from the patriarchal structures and gender specific roles and structures force men to conceal and not be their true self in fear of getting ridiculed for not following rules specified for them.
1.Questioning Gender Roles And trying to smash them.
Gender roles are everyday roles divided between men and women which they need to follow specified by patriarchy.
Such as women do the household chores and take care of home and children and men have to go outside to win bread for the family.
These gender roles which are universally accepted in the society makes life hard for men. When a man wants to take a break from work to pursue his passion,due to health issues or just simply a break, he has to leave his job but due to his role as a bread winner is specified in the family he struggles to ask his wife to earn for the family. Women have been fighting against these gender specific roles and are now going to work so now it's easy for men but earlier they had to take the whole burden of earning for the family. Similarly, some men enjoy cooking and want to cook for their family or want to pursue career as a chef but they are often ridiculed for their choices and sometimes they leave their passion and hobbies in pressure to not get judged. Feminists have been questioning the validity of this setup and trying to smash these gender roles for good since a long time and men are getting benefitted by this.
2.Defying Conventional Gender Expression And Masculine Stereotypes.
The stereotype of how men and women should act, dress and how they should behave was hugely criticized by the feminists and the conventional expression of gender and masculine stereotypes were put in question.
Men who don't like to play sports and don't behave 'macho' and 'rough and tough' are ridiculed for being soft and gentle and are called names in society.
These men who are victims of the patriarchy find themselves heard and understood under feminism where they won't be judged. Men are supposed to be tough and emotionally strong and showing emotions is considered as weakness which takes a huge toll on men's mental health. Feminism allows and accepts men to be emotional and advocates for the mental health of men. In this way, feminism helps and provide men safe space to be their true self and explore and express themselves more freely.
3.Intersectionality and Acceptance.
Women have been subjected to violence, injustice and have been denied basic rights and freedom since ages, this has made them sensitive and understanding to the struggles faced by various other marginalized communities. The intersectional feminism acknowledges the struggles and experiences faced by marginalized sections of the society including men. For instance, feminism acknowledges the struggles and discrimination faced by the LGBTQIA+ community including gay, bisexual men and other male members from the queer community and advocates for their legitimate equal rights.
4.Advocacy For Gender Neutral Laws
Laws and regulations have always been binary and in one or another way some of the victims are left out from the definitions of the law. The laws against sexual crimes in India under IPC, mentions the victim or survivor of rape only can be a woman and men victims aren't included in the law.
According to a survey conducted by Government of India on Child Sexual Abuse in 2007, 57.3% of the victims of severe sexual abuse including rape or sodomy were boys and this is far more than girls which is 42.7%.
This way the male survivors of rape and other crimes were denied justice. The demand to make laws inclusive and gender neutral can be very helpful for men who have survived these crimes.
5.Equal Benefits Regarding Parenting And Family Time
Spending time with family and children is a beautiful feeling indeed for both parents but the burden of parenting ultimately falls unto women as default and men miss out this feeling due to lack of paternity leaves and leaves for family time.
Recently, famous cricketer Virat Kohli was in news for his decision regarding pulling out of a cricket tour and taking paternity leave to spend time with his newly born daughter. This decision by him started a debate around paternity leaves and other benefits for men related to parenting which isn't mainstream and widely practiced and helped more people to get familiar with it.
Feminism has always taked about equal participation in parenting and advocated for paternity leaves for men and with the application of this practice more and more men will benefit out of it and enjoy time with their newly born babies.
These are some of the big changes which feminism has brought or aspires to bring which will help men in different ways directly and indirectly. The need for gender neutral laws to include all the genders including men will help a big number of men who face sexual violence and suffer in silence due to lack of awareness and absence of laws to deal with violence against men and provide them justice. The demand for equal participation in parenting benefitted men with extra benefits for men like paternity leaves and others. Men can get lot of benefits from feminism because its base is equality for all.
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