FBM is a common acronym in the online feminist movement, a quick reminder that feminism is for men too- not just in terms of solidarity, that we benefit indirectly by the lives of women we know improving, but also because there are direct benefits of feminism to men, and because radical feminists aim for men to learn from the things that have benefitted women in the past and prove they can do them just as well, much as women have proven their ability to take on what used to be called “men’s roles”.
A lot of the posts at my previous blog were intended to be illustrative of this idea, the various ways in which patriarchal systems (that’s feminist verbose for “unconscious sexism”) trip men up, and I’ll be continuing that trend over here, and as long as I come up with different forms of this idea to talk about, I’ll continue this series, tagging those posts with FBM and prefixing it to their titles.
FMB includes a number of broad topics:
- Why stereotypes and expectations of masculinity are harmful,
- Extending positive aspects of women’s sexuality to men, including birth control and having high standards,
- Creating equal expectations of men and women, rather than holding men to an insultingly low standard,
- Allowing space for differences between men and women without considering them mandatory or expected,
- Delaying or avoiding socialising young boys with unnecessary gender roles and letting them express their own desires,
- Criticising the policing of men’s decisions by both other men and women.
I hope to be able to continue doing feminist outreach to other men, and convincing them both online and offline that changing our culture is a good thing.
Le Matt Juste 