For those who don’t know, TERF stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminists; SWERF stands for sex-work exclusionary radical feminists. However, for clarification, Dismantle Misogyny does consider themselves radical feminists, just the kind that includes all definitions of “female.”
The page focuses on feminism from the perspective of a woman, yet is the stereotypical image of radical feminists. Dismantle Misogyny aims to do just that, however the message they are publicizing in not gender equality, but an uplifting of the female sex above the male gender. The group frames this idea and message by using experiences of women being oppressed, harassed, or sexualized by men. There are also examples of corporations and society taking advantage of a woman’s social weaknesses and exploiting her.
Once specific post Dismantle Misogyny made retweeted @elliebotoman writing, “’why do feminists hate me’ why does a movement for women become so misunderstood to the point where it’s still about men.” Dismantle Misogyny also posted, “An abusive man may embellish his childhood suffering once he discovers that it helps him escape responsibility. The National District Attorney’s Association Bulletin reported a revealing study that was conducted on another group of destructive men: child sexual abusers.” The community page focuses on men being abusers. Many posts repelling Dismantle Misogyny’s ideas of feminism say that these radical ideas are why the word “feminism” in many cases is seen as an insult. And because of this, it is in many cases seen as unproductive by the public.
HeForShe.org, on the other hand, advocates the dictionary definition of feminism which is as follows from the Oxford English Dictionary: “Advocacy of equality of the sexes and the establishment of the political, social, and economic rights of the female sex.” Equality is the key term for the HeForShe movement. It focuses on the fact that women are not the only ones oppressed by their gender and that society does not always see men is a caring light (as stated above by Dismantle Misogyny’s posts).
HeForShe uses men and women to become advocates for each other. One of their slogans is, “Gender equality brings together one half of humanity in support of the other half of humanity, for the benefit of all.” This sentence does not designate a specific gender to the task of supporting the other. It is saying that men and women must support each other equally. Women are not the only ones capable of being raped or assaulted. HeForShe uses examples to support the frame that men are not the only gender capable of being abusers in a relationship. Men, for example, are oppressed by society as paternal figures. It is rare if there is a baby changing station in a man’s bathroom, yet it is to be expected in a woman’s. Women receive maternal leave, yet in many cases, men do not. In comparison to Dismantle Misogyny, HeForShe.org has received 468,155 signatures from men alone saying they support the movement and its definition of feminism. Let it be known that this number does not represent the number of women who agree with the movement. Obviously, true gender equality is accepted more so by men and women when representing both sides of the equation.
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/DismantleMisogyny?fref=ts&ref=br_tf http://www.heforshe.org/
Solid work here! You do a very good job of summarizing each perspective, and you offer cogent evaluation of each.
ReplyDeleteOne of the important goals of any campaign analysis has to be discernment of goal. You do a good job pointing out how Dismantle Misogyny appears to embrace a level of exclusivity - ironically pointing out how certain groups are not welcome to join a movement that purports to stand for inclusiveness and respect. Your other group, HeForShe.org, would appear to cast itself as more of a support group so that one group (identifying as male) can express solidarity with another (identifying as female). Importantly, the criteria asserted by each group would appear to make affiliation mutually exclusive.
Consider the goal of each group - both of which would seem to be based upon the common goal of gender equality. How would each tactic operate? Is there evidence as to which element of the public would respond to each group's appeal? When you restrict affiliation to only sympathetics, would you consider their public statements to be public arguments or merely statements designed to pump up the faithful? Would you suggest that DM contributes to the public discourse?
Good stuff here!