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Is feminism sexist?

Posted by Nichi Hodgson – 13 March 2012 17:28

While British feminist campaigners explicitly try to address the gender iniquities faced by all, should men’s rights ever be feminism’s responsibility?
A demo against the Playboy Club in London. Photo: Getty Images

A demo against the Playboy Club in London. Photo: Getty Images

Does feminism discriminate against men? Tom Martin thinks so. Today, the former MSc student at the gender studies institute of the London School of Economics sued the university for misleading advertising and breach of equality legislation, on the basis that the course promotes a “sexist agenda”.

Martin, who has raised £4,300 to fund his case at the central London county court, argues that feminism makes women think of themselves as victims, and that it promotes a discourse which “excludes mention of men” and the inequalities they face, such as increased risk of homelessness and subjection to hypergamy (gold-digging), which his website claims is “prevalent among most of the world’s women”.

Martin would like to see the gender studies course incorporate male studies, a burgeoning field in America backed by the likes of Warren Farrell, the controversial author of such books as The Myth of Male Power. A substantial part of the evidence that he will be using for his case is the language of the core texts for the LSE course, which he believes establish an “all women good, all men bad” binary, while research that is “articulate and forthright on men’s problems” is systematically blocked.

But is feminism sexist? Admittedly it often overlooks the M-word in policy papers focusing on inequalities that predominantly affect women. While British feminist writers and campaigners from the F-Word blog to UK Feminista explicitly try to engage men and address the gender iniquities faced by all, should men’s rights ever be feminism’s responsibility?

It seems obvious that liberating women from gender-based discrimination would help men, too – apart from appealing to a sense of justice, how else can house husbandry be sold, if not as an antidote to the male burden of being breadwinner?

Men may not be the enemy, yet with so few people prepared to identify as feminist in the first place, many “feminisms” are understandably wary of providing a critical male platform that might be used against women. Although Martin advocates joint custody rights, which the coalition are moving towards, he holds provocative views on “exaggerated” rape statistics and the role that women’s shelters play in exacerbating sex segregation. He also dismisses the notion of patriarchy.

And he presumably hopes his lawsuit, if successful, will create a precedent for anti-feminist discrimination cases.

Nichi Hodgson is a 28-year-old freelance journalist specialising in sexual politics, law and culture.

Tags: feminism