In 2014, a new trend began to emerge on Twitter: Meninism. It appeared to be a parody of Feminism, tweeting about the hardships that men face in society. However, the accounts never touched on serious issues men face, such as the stigma about men with eating disorders or mental illness, etc. Instead, the Twitter accounts are used to complain about and make fun of women. These jokes are usually sexist and offensive, and are based on stereotypes of women. They make fun of women based on their weight, call women hoes, and complain about being put in the friendzone.
Not only do these accounts make fun of women, but they also make light of the serious problems that they face daily in our current society. The accounts make frequent jokes about sexual assault and domestic violence as well. Victims of rape or domestic violence have a difficult enough time coming forward as it is, but when they are commonly the punchline of a joke, it makes it even harder for them to speak up. While there are Men’s Rights Activists who are concerned with the real and serious issues that men face in our society today, especially those issues that are rarely talked about due to hyper masculinity, meninists make a joke out of the seriousness of these issues that feminists fight for. There are many implications that come with the meninist movement. Some of these include how the problems women face in society are not important, how feminists hate men, and that feminism is only about helping women. However, these implications about feminism are not true.
Feminism is a movement that advocates for the social, political and economic equality between men and women. Feminism is not about women wanting to be superior to men, or even that they hate men as a whole. They simply dislike the inequality there is between men and women, from the wage gap to how hard it is for females to get into and stay in positions of power, etc. In addition, feminism focuses on a lot of the same issues that MRAs do, showing that they don’t like the idea of hyper masculinity and the stigma that faces boys and men around having mental illnesses or eating disorders or anything that might make them appear “weak.” A feminist doesn’t hate a man simply for being a man. However, these misconceptions about feminism often lead people to believe that meninism is necessary in our society when, in reality, the fact that our society even has a joke movement for men’s rights (which they’ve always had since the Founding Fathers) just proves why these issues continue to prevail in our society.
Some people believe that there shouldn’t be a feminist movement, there should be a humanist movement because all humans should have equal rights. While this is a very valid thought, feminism is not claiming that other humans don’t have rights. It is simply trying to acquire equal rights between men and women. This is why we are advocating for the rights of the underprivileged gender with a feminist movement. Meanwhile, meninists just continue to invalidate this movement by making it a joke.
The bottom line is that men do not need their own movement because their gender already has the advantage in our society. If these meninist Twitter accounts were made to discuss serious issues instead of attacking women, it would be easier to overlook this fact. However, the accounts make no attempt to spread awareness about toxic masculinity, eating disorders, mental illnesses, or other serious issues. These are all serious issues men face that society does not prioritize because we usually associate girls with things like anorexia and depression, not boys. Feminists, however, acknowledge that men suffer from these ailments too, and believe that men shouldn’t refrain from seeking help in fear of being labeled as weak or feminine.
We chose this topic because it is easy for someone to defend meninism by saying “it’s just a joke.” When you challenge and point out the problems with things that are meant to be funny, you risk being labeled as over-sensitive or easily offended. However, allowing jokes that have toxic effects on society to carry on is not okay. I would much rather be labeled as someone who “can’t take a joke” than someone who lets something go when they know it isn’t right.
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