I am not an MRA. I am not a feminist. No, I do not want to “identify” as any set of rigid political beliefs. I don’t want to do it, because I don’t want my fundamental identity to be chained to ideas that might need to change, or which could well be wrong. Call me greedy but I want to pick and choose, mix and match; to copy, transform and combine the best ideas, from other people. Despite being an advocate of women, I cannot be a feminist as I don’t believe in patriarchy theory, I don’t believe the pay gap is real and I don’t believe domestic abuse is a gendered issue either. Despite being an advocate of men, I cannot be an MRA because I don’t think ‘women have it easy’, I don’t think society is entirely gynocentric and I’m bored of the endless explosions and battle cries against feminism. I don’t just want fizzy cola bottles, because I also want to try gummy bears, and I’m partial to cherry drops too. So I’ll take bits of both sides and leave the rest, thanks. I understand labels can be empowering, they can unite us through alliances. But so too they can become lead weights and blindfolds, stubbornly causing division and ignorance that can hold us back. I see it all the time. Sometimes I talk to people and I quickly realise they simply *cannot be wrong*. They aren’t allowed to be. They cannot be wrong because who they are, and their very identity as a human being, is conditional them being right. And this is a dangerous place to be, I’ve been there before and won’t be going there again. So I identify as ‘George’, as… me. And perhaps you should identify as you too. ~
Sources The Pay Gap https://tinyurl.com/yc7mzm7w Sexual Abuse of Men https://1in6.org/ Police Homicide https://tinyurl.com/3yv7e7rv 38% of rape victims are men https://tinyurl.com/38tmfa8r Domestic abuse is not a gendered issue https://tinyurl.com/fuarzpu8 ~ Images by Cesar La Rosa and Kraken Images from Unsplash.

2022-11-04