Webcomics Tweet of the Week – June 17, 2012
There were many thoughtful and entertaining Twitter droppings from the world of webcomics this week, but I’ve decided to highlight an outstanding tweet which touches upon one of my favorite topics…
“Let me explain feminism to you.” -dudes
— Justin Pierce (@justinpie) June 14, 2012
In the course of exploring the wilds of the internet, I’ve encountered vehement objection to the concept and aims of feminism. And the objections almost always come from some dude who is also eager to explain what feminists believe, so he can then elucidate how wrong they are.
*sigh*
This isn’t to say that dudes can’t be feminists or feminist allies. Quite the contrary! They can and should. Just, whatever your gender, if you’re not a feminist, then you should let those who are feminists speak for themselves.
Justin Pierce is the creator of the very, very funny Wonderella. Read his comic and follow his Twitter, and you shall not regret it.
Actually, I find that I have to explain what feminism is and why it’s important all the time. Somehow, I have a lot of female friends that don’t want to use the word because it’s tainted, or they think that because they don’t live with blatant, day-to-day sexism, it’s a solved problem.
If I tell other guys I’m a feminist, nobody seems to care. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. :/
That’s a good point, Vjgoh. There’s no reason a dude can’t be a feminist and do a great job explaining what feminism is.
I interpreted the tweet as referring to what they call “mansplaining,” which is when a non-feminist dude thinks he understands feminism better than feminists do. Although I’ll tell you the truth, there are plenty of non-feminist women who do the same thing.