While the subject may be getting old to some, feminism is still an important issue. This is proven by the fact that for every article I read promoting female equality, with the hundreds of commenters that respond in the affirmative, there are always a few commenters who accuse the article of hypocrisy.
They do have a point. After all, if feminists really wanted true equality, wouldn't there be articles promoting male equality as well? Why aren't there more bloggers protesting the way women treat men? I just read an article discussing several reasons men often use for why women owe them sex, ending with the reminder that "A woman doesn't owe you anything." And while the authors of the article claim it applies to both genders, it clearly focuses on the man as the aggressor and the woman as the victim. Why not switch roles once in a while?
I have an idea.
Let's say you're a parent with two children. You love them equally. However, the first child is constantly misbehaving. He's always hitting other kids, taking their toys, and even calling them bad names. Indeed, you constantly find yourself putting him in timeout and telling him why none of those things are okay. You've even had to incorporate lessons and games put together by child experts to help him behave. While he is showing some improvement lately, there's still a lot of work to be done.
The other child is very well-behaved. While he isn't perfect and certainly needs to be disciplined once in a while, for the most part, he knows how to treat people. As a result, there aren't nearly as many timeouts, lessons, or games to help him learn to behave.
Would you say that's one-sided? Of course not
Simply put, you don't see too many women going on shooting rampages because no one will sleep with them, and neither are they making cat calls at men walking down the street. Men certainly don't have to be on their guard when surrounded by several strange women on the subway, and they don't get asked about what they were wearing when they're sexually assaulted.
To use another analogy, accusing feminists of hypocrisy for not giving equal weight to male equality is like accusing abolitionists during the slavery era of hypocrisy for not protesting white slavery as well.
The end.
