Okay, Who Wants to Join the Menist Movement?

The liveliest discussion on Orato right now is happening over The Naked Reporter’s latest post.

It’s all about feminism, which makes me uniquely qualified to comment.

I think I’m a feminist, in that I’m in favor of equal rights for all, and that includes women. Or maybe that makes me a motherhoodist, that is, someone who takes safe, popular decisions that no one will ever quarrel with.

You wouldn’t say that about Michelle Manhart, aka The Naked Reporter, who stakes her ground and will fight for that ground like a drill sergeant, which makes sense, because in her previous life, that’s what she was, a drill sergeant.

She’s not one any more mainly because of what she believed in: that a drill sergeant can be the subject of a nude photo spread in Playboy. She lost her job because of her belief, which makes her the opposite of a motherhoodist.

And that’s one of the reasons I admire her. I also admire that she took on the Naked Reporter idea with gusto, and regularly makes sure that it works on both levels: yes, she’s proud of her body, which she works hard to maintain as an icon of sexy health and fitness, but she’s also naked in the way she thinks: what you see is what you get, and no hiding behind the cloak of safe, popular ideas.

So Michelle riles people up, but she also gets them thinking and arguing passionately for their own points of view…if you don’t believe me check out the comment trail following the latest edition of the Naked Reporter and witness the eloquent invective being expended on the debate over who is and who is not a real feminist.

I notice that as I write, no men have ventured into the discussion. And perhaps I should stay out of it too – after all, as the stereotypical Angry Old White Male Boomer (AOWMB), I’d have to move the O one space to the right to qualify as a real feminist. But this lively debate has got me thinking so I have some ground to stake here.

If you don’t read fashion magazines, and I don’t, not even in the doctor’s office when there’s nothing else other than National Geographics from 1994, the news about women and clothing is often about covering up as in whether or not Muslim women are oppressed by the clothing they are required to wear as a profession of their faith. There may well be many, perhaps a majority, of Muslim women who feel the need to cover themselves from tip to toe – and there are others who would rather wear whatever they want but can’t because their religion, their mullahs, their husbands – some guy – won’t allow it.

I admit I am uncomfortable with such severely regulated behavior. I have a long philosophical backstory that I can unpack and bore you with if you like, but let me shorten it in the interest of liveliness, to which the column is dedicated: Orato (and its editors) are all about freedom of expression. Theoretically, that includes all those women who wish to cover themselves tip to toe, regardless of comfort. If that’s the way you want to dress, go for it. If that’s the way someone else wants you to dress, I support your right to tell them to take a hike or look in the mirror, whatever works best.

But that’s why I like the Naked Reporter. She has fought for the right to be free of restrictions over her own body. If she wants to appear out of uniform (when’s she’s off duty), then that should be her right. That’s what the US military is fighting for! The right to be free! So you have to wonder why they’d fire someone who was exercising that right. But if people and their institutions made sense, well…

Life would be better.

But many would have it otherwise, and I’ve given up trying to figure out why. I think it’s because their moms never gave them a hug, but then I’m an unreconstructed motherhoodist.

I think some of Michelle Manhart’s opponents have good arguments. It is possible that Michelle is being exploited to promote the prurient lusts of unreconstructed male chauvinist pigs who would keep women subservient, barefoot and pregnant and in the kitchen, while they’re out sowing their domestic oats. I think we should take their concerns seriously, but to contend that Michelle Manhart is not all about freedom and self-determination is taking it too far.

Anyway, Michelle Manhart can take care of herself.

The half of the population I’m more worried about these days is the male half. There may be plenty of feminists and motherhoodists around, but there aren’t too many menists. Menaces, yes. Menists, no. Wherever I go, I meet women who have a powerful and positive vision of who they are, but I don’t often encounter men these days, especially young men, who really represent the future. Maybe I’m wrong, but the young men I meet who aren’t buried in some electronic diversion seem a bit sheepish and more than a little confused. (Those who are buried should come up for air.)

It’s not just me who’s concerned. The mainstream media have noticed too: USA Today notes "universities fret about how to attract males as women increasingly dominate campuses and The Washington Post calls their disappearance the "question that has grown too conspicuous to ignore."

Did you know, for example, that: females outnumber males by a four to three ratio in American colleges, a difference of almost two million students? Men earn only 43% of all college degrees. Among blacks, two women earn bachelor’s degrees for every man. Among Hispanics, only 40 percent of college graduates are male. Female high school graduates are 16% more likely to go to college than their male counterparts.

I’m not sure what this means. Christina Hoff Summers thinks she knows what it means: “We have thrown the gender switch," says the resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men. "What does it mean in the long run that we have females who are significantly more literate, significantly more educated than their male counterparts? It is likely to create a lot of social problems. This does not bode well for anyone."

There are many who have argued since Ms. Summers’ controversial book was released that society is still dominated by men and any idiot can tell that – all you have to do is search the executive suite for the women’s washroom, but the point is that men can’t stop showing up and expect to lives fulfilled lives. Women have figured it out and aren’t waiting around for some guy to give them permission. By contrast, men seem clueless and directionless.

I don’t actually believe there’s a war against boys, but it must be tough on the emerging male psyche to be told that women are oppressed, as the next obvious conclusion is that men, that is: you, Bubba, are the oppressor. Which is why I celebrate Michelle Manhart (gotta love that name, men!). She believes in herself 100%, but in a way that champions other points of view. She’s a role model for the emerging menist movement (which just started emerging toward the end of this column).

So, we’ve got our poster girl, now all we need is our poster boy. Burt Reynolds is getting on, but he’s still making the man rules, at least on those beer commercials. Still, somebody younger, someone who’s not an AOWMB nor James Blunt either, would be useful. What about you?

Are you man enough?

Let me know.