Survey Says: Feminists report less hostility towards men than non-feminists

Shakesville is a feminist blog, and a feminist's blog.

Man Haterz
| posted by Melissa McEwan | Monday, August 03, 2009

An excerpt from the blog:
I can't imagine the number of times I've pointed out (particularly in regard to narratives about rape) that it is anti-feminists' views of men—and, inevitably, men's allegedly intrinsic male (animalistic) nature—which are always extremely unflattering to men.

Most of these unflattering characterizations, particularly that men are brutish and that men are infantile, are blamed on feminists/womanists, but most FWs eschew such blanket stereotypes not merely on the principle that gendered stereotypes are anti-feminist/womanist, but also because FWs are keenly aware that male privilege is served by those stereotypes of men, as one (brutishness) is used to excuse intolerable behavior of men and the other (infantilization) is used to justify pathetically low expectations of men.

The survey:
http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2009/07/non-feminist_mo
An excerpt from the survey:
Some researchers at the University of Houston decided to investigate whether it’s really true that feminists hate men. They interviewed just under 500 undergraduates, using something called the ‘Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory’.

What they found was that feminists reported less hostility towards men than non-feminists. In effect, not only does this suggest the stereotype is not true, it’s actually the reverse.

Melinda Kanner, one of the researchers, has this interesting observation:

Our work finds that, indeed, non-feminists believe in traditional gender roles such as men being breadwinners and women being caregivers. At the same time, these non-feminists actually appear to resent the confines of the traditional roles they advocate, which presents a paradox for women and men in traditional heterosexual relationships.

(via Emily Kadar, Feminist Majority Foundation)

Posted by:
Jerin Alam
National NOW Young Feminist Task Force
National Organization for Women (NOW)