Easy Ways For Men (and Women!) to Become Better Feminists

Paulette Moore’s call for Easy Ways For Men (and Women!) to Become Better Feminists gave me a lot of food for thought. To the often heard question what can men do to support feminism, there are some motivating ideas:

1. Don’t laugh at sexist jokes.
2. Belly laugh to the comic genius of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
3. Move to clean up dishes after a meal before anyone else does.
4. Read biographies about women. Start with Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein by Miranda Seymour. Move on to Do They Hear You When You Cry – a stunning political and personal journey by and about Fauziya Kassindja; a woman from Togo who sought asylum from the practice of female genital mutilation.
5. Read more literature, watch films created by women. Check out the mind-boggling book Orlando by Virginia Woolf. Then watch the beautiful film of the same name by director Sally Potter.
6. Stop to consider what it means that one in three women in the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. At least 1 in 4 college women will survive a sexual assault during her academic career. Now, look around at your female relatives, friends and colleagues.
7. Seek opportunities to mentor women and girls.
8. Stop to wonder whether your work colleague actually was overlooked for that promotion because she was a woman.
9. March with a woman’s group at a political rally. Have fun.
10. Suggest 10 additional easy ways for all of us to become better feminists.

Besides their suggestions, I want to add my own:

1. Expose and recognize white male privilege.

2. Expose and recognize your own entitlements and privileges.

3. Get in touch with feminist theory and critical studies in order to reinforce your arguments.

4. Support and create alliances with feminists, LGBT & queer groups, anti-racist and equality activists.

5. Discover local histories of courageous women that fought patriarchy.

6. Support feminist artists and art collectives, attend their events, buy their works.

7. Read and watch the news, react to sexism, racism and inequality in media. Start or join a feminist blog.

8. React to daily sexism and make it unwelcomed in your peer group.

9. Boycott products, companies and campaigns that use sexist advertising.

10. Suggest 10 additional easy ways for all of us to become better feminists.