The question of, “Can males be feminists?” was one of four questions posed to students last Thursday during the forum titled, “Unmasking the Male Feminist” in the Social Science Building.
The Philosophy Club and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance sponsored the event.
More than 50 students and faculty also heard responses to three other questions about feminism such as:
? What is feminism?? Why should men be feminists?? How should men express feminism?
During a panel discussion with former ASCC Vice President Alex Armendariz, English major, Jonathan Mota, history instructor, George Jarrett, economics instructor, Solomon Namala, philosophy instructor, Ted Solze and philosophy and sociology major, Guillermo Tellez all agreed that what has been defined as feminism has been misleading.
“The definition of feminism is the doctrine advocating social, political and all other rights of women equal to those of men,” Armendariz, explained.
In addition, feminism is also important because it’s about equality rights, he continued. But one thing that was clear was that it didn’t matter what religion, sex or ethnicity a person is, what’s important is that the issue matters to them.
For Mota, it is the fact that it was about gender roles in society that meant the most to him, because as he said, “no one is assigned a gender when born.”
There have been three waves of feminism.
The first was in the context of industrial society and liberal politics of the women’s rights movement during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
The second wave of feminism occurred in the 1980s and 90s when blacks and homosexuals were oppressed in postwar along with the voice of female empowerment, third-world women and colored women as well.
Currently, the third wave of feminism is occurring within society in that questions regarding equality and difference are raised, and revolution with evolution.
From a historical point of view, Jarrett said that there is a legitimate way that men and women can work together and that is by looking at the way that there is opportunity for an understanding that there is equality.
“There is equal opportunity for sharing work, because at one time men were the dominate figure and women were told that their place was in the home.”
That has changed, Jarrett said, with the likes of the National Organization of Women who believe that men and women have legal, civil and a political right to enforce the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
As the economical aspective of feminism was addressed during a question and answer period, Alok Barot, political science major, questioned the reasoning behind Namala’s point of view when he said that women don’t have representation and there is only a glimpse of sections that women have been recognized.
However, that was challenged by Kathleen Quinn, philosophy major, saying that what Barot said was not true.
“There is a movement toward women who are making process of representation so what was brought out isn’t how I see it, that is, women not being recognized.”
Despite that, students and faculty said afterward that the forum was a success because of the interest of those who attended.
But for Mario Rivera, psychology major, he feels students should education themselves about feminism yet he didn’t really learn much from the forum.
Velia Jimenez, business and women’s studies major, said that that’s not the way she saw it. “I really learned to appreciate males who are feminists because there are male feminists out there but those who are don’t know it.”
She too walked away learning the struggle of equality that lead to the feminist movement.
Tellez and Armendariz agreed that the turnout was a success and that it made students think about something such as feminism and hoped that it created discussion and desire for action.
Ann Tower-Bowers, philosophy adviser, commented that it was also a success that there was leadership during the discussion.
There is another discussion planned for later on during the semester. Place and time are still being determined.
