By Kathryn Kelman/editor-in-chief
After a video of a Russian “feminist” allegedly pouring diluted bleach on male commuters’ crotches for “manspreading” went viral, a Russian politician has called for feminists to be prosecuted.
Vitaly Milonov, an ultra-conservative lawmaker from Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party said feminism should be classified as an “absolutely radical point of view.”
“Feminism is insanity from the standpoint of a normal person,” Milonov said to the Moscow City News agency.
But what Milonov and a lot of anti-feminism folks fail to understand is that what activist Anna Dovgalyuk’s did wasn’t feminism. It was misandry, which is defined as the dislike of, contempt for or an inherent prejudice against men.
Feminism, on the other hand, is defined as the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.
Dumping a corrosive chemical that can cause chemical burns especially on delicate skin regardless of being watered down is assault, not feminism.
Feminism is not about assaulting people. It’s not giving men a taste of the harassment women have faced for centuries.
Sadly, feminism has gotten a bad rap because people in charge sometimes attempt to undermine and skew the cause or have bastardized the message of equality.
The fight for equality of the sexes instead has been associated with idiotic acts that set men against women though most sensible people and any real feminist know such acts are not rooted in feminism, they’re rooted in misandry.
Any real feminist fully understands that the sexism born out of our patriarchal society doesn’t only limit women, it also limits and harms men.
Feminists don’t view men as the enemy, because they’re not, and it certainly isn’t about attacking them.
Men need this movement just as much as women do. So alienating and harming them makes no sense.
For the sexes to be equal, both need to be liberated from the constrains of patriarchal society.
That’s what feminism is all about.
