{"id":64424,"date":"2014-10-16T09:01:32","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T14:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=64424"},"modified":"2014-10-13T15:07:08","modified_gmt":"2014-10-13T20:07:08","slug":"is-this-heforshe-video-helping-feminism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2014\/10\/16\/is-this-heforshe-video-helping-feminism\/","title":{"rendered":"Is This #HeForShe Video Helping Feminism?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Nations\u2019 #HeForShe campaign had a fantastic launch, with\u00a0Emma Watson\u2019s impassioned speech<\/a>\u00a0deservedly going viral. She stood up and described how everyday sexism continues to discourage girls and women from being strong, physical, and outspoken. And she defended the \u201cfeminist\u201d label as a simple demand for sexual equality. But most importantly, she called for solidarity between men and women in achieving it.<\/p>\n

And then this video came out:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

On the surface, it looks like a group of men from all walks of life answering Ms. Watson\u2019s call. But delve deeper, and it becomes problematic. For me, anyway.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a man, and I consider myself a feminist. But when I think about working towards an end to sexism, the last thing I would do is get a group of men to discuss the issue isolated from women. And yet that\u2019s what this video seems to be trying to do.<\/p>\n

It feels like a male encounter group, but obviously highly scripted. The different men describe their commitment to #HeForShe in terms of protective paternalistic stereotypes (\u201cI can\u2019t let my daughters, or my wife, suffer because I didn\u2019t do MY job\u201d) and entitlement (\u201cIf we don\u2019t change it, it\u2019s never gonna change.\u201d)<\/p>\n

I realize that men have to be part of the solution, but this video feels like it is saying that men ARE the solution. As if a bunch of bros getting together to share their feelings are going to solve sexism, with no reference to how sisters have been\u00a0doing it for themselves<\/a>\u00a0for over 200 years. They don\u2019t need a heroic male takeover of the women\u2019s movement that helps us all feel proud of ourselves because we are \u201c#NotAllMen<\/a>.\u201d They need real understanding and support.<\/p>\n

Am I being too harsh? Maybe. But when the one man says, \u201cUnderstand that it\u2019s not only speaking out FOR women, but WITH women\u201d to a\u00a0sausage fest<\/a>, the irony speaks volumes to me.<\/p>\n

I think #HeForShe is a great idea, \u201ca solidarity movement for gender equality that brings together one half of humanity in support of the other of humanity, for the entirety of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why can\u2019t we do it together? Are men considered to be so sexist already that we need to find a \u201cmanly\u201d way to be feminist?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an idea: Talk to women about the issue. But more importantly, listen to them about what they experience. There is far more work for us to do together.<\/p>\n

Tom Megginson is a Creative Director at\u00a0Acart Communications<\/a>, a Canadian Social Issues Marketing agency. He is\u00a0a specialist in social marketing, cause marketing, and corporate social responsibility. You can follow Tom at Osocio<\/a>, where this post <\/em>originally appeared<\/a><\/em>, and The Ethical Adman\u00a0Work That Matters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Nations\u2019 #HeForShe campaign had a fantastic launch, with\u00a0Emma Watson\u2019s impassioned speech\u00a0deservedly going viral. She stood up and described how everyday sexism continues to discourage girls and women from being strong, physical, and outspoken. And she defended the \u201cfeminist\u201d label as a simple demand for sexual equality. But most importantly, she called for solidarity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":64426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12508,55,2095,2087,64],"class_list":["post-64424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-activismsocial-movements","tag-gender","tag-gender-feminismactivism","tag-gender-masculinity","tag-globalization"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/10\/26.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64424"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64450,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64424\/revisions\/64450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}