I studied Feminism at college so you don't have to. (+ A First Person Perspective on the Education Gap)

Hey all, 17M here.

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And first off, no, I did not choose to study specifically Feminism at college, nor gender studies or anything like that. It's part of my Politics curriculum at UK Sixth Form, which is for students aged 16-18 and acts as a gap between High School and University. Here, students normally study 3-4 A-Levels, with Politics being one of mine. As part of Politics, we study numerous ideologies, including the three core political ideologies (Socialism, Liberalism, Conservatism) as well as one "non-core" ideology. Each college chooses which ideology this is, and can include topics such as Nationalism, for example.

Well, my sixth form chose Feminism. Having always been an MRA, I was going into this open-minded. After all, feminism is a very relevant movement and until recently has not had radical connotations. It's important to notice that I did not have a problem with the content of the subject itself , rather, the interesting perspective it provided me on the true intentions of the movement, plus how other students in the class (nearly entirely female, it's higher education after all) interpret feminism.

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Of course, anyone who denies the historical importance of feminism has clearly got the wrong idea. First and Second wave notably are important for placing women on an equal pedestal to men and gaining what we view as basic civil liberties. If there's one thing I got from learning about this, it's that the feminists of yesterday are bold, courageous and daring, especially in comparison to the feminists of today.

Third and Fourth wave is where the movement began to show its radical roots, placing a heavier emphasis on issues such as the Patriarchy and internalized misogyny. Sure, some important issues were still raised, such as Intersectionality as per bell hooks' advocacy, but smaller strands of feminists, namely Cultural and Separatist feminists, began to rise in popularity. It's important that these two types of feminists began to be labelled Misandrists for the benefit of the feminist movement itself, although my classmates disagreed. Even the exam board hesitantly stated in their mark criteria that too many students bunched in Cultural and Separatist feminists with Radical feminists, sounding almost defensive.

I'll reiterate what I said earlier - most of feminism has good intentions. However, there is a clear disillusionment between when feminists want to claim the movement is solely based on women, and when the movement also includes mens issues. Because in my studies of feminism, not once was a male-centred or even male-related issue brought up. I'd say Liberal Feminists were the most radical of the bunch. Going with a 'Discrimination not Oppression' approach, they deny the existence of the patriarchy and truly strive for gender equality as a result of their loyalty to the idea of Individuality, where humans should not be categorised and judged through their biology as opposed to their character.

My biggest takeaway from studying feminism was that it's straight up disrespectful to try and claim that your movement advocates for men when it clearly doesn't. It's not supposed to, and it's absolutely fine if feminists claim that their movement focuses on women's issues. So when feminists try to claim that they also cover the grounds of mens issues, they are not only misunderstanding the historical character of their own movement, they are invalidating mens issues and deeming them a 'side-topic' to what they see as more important, womens issues. This also aligns with the idea that feminists should not attack the Mens Rights movement. Most attempts at reasonable debate was near impossible. Raised voices, emotive speaking etc. A lot of snarly comments implying the eradication of men is the best option and advocating for the creation of a Matriarchy. It just felt tense to be in the room as a man the whole time.

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While I'm at it, here's a first-person perspective on the Education gap that is getting nowhere near enough exposure from the media, and even the Mens Rights movement itself.

My sixth form is abundantly women. Still promoting initiatives to get more women into STEM, having a Female Empowerment hour among other things, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to be a man going through higher education. I know many friends, as intelligent or even more intelligent than me, that went into some engineering apprenticeship or other physical job because they feel that the classroom-environment doesn't work for them anymore and that higher education isn't for them.

Less men are going to university, less men are going to college. This is a problem because to ensure Equality of Opportunity, we must make sure the classroom environment works for both men and women and ensure that careers that typically appeal to men can be reached through higher education as opposed to years of labor-intensive physical work that does not pay sufficient wage.

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My final point is the poor Mental Health services in college. Men's mental health is not in a good place right now, but with that being said, I am one of a few boys in my college seeking out therapy and mental health services, and it goes to show in the environments we're placed in. First off, the services are not accessible. To fill out a form, wait for a meeting to be created and then wait outside the room with hundreds of students walking by for 10 minutes feels humiliating.

Then you actually get into the room. To my knowledge, there are no male therapists, which isn't a problem, it's just not an appealing career for men generally speaking, but it's worth mentioning. The worst part is how the room is laid out. Bright colours of pink, weird fluffy pillows and eccentric lighting. It looks like a teenage girls bedroom, and it's absolutely an environment only specially curated to making women feel more comfortable.

I felt alienated in there, like I shouldn't be seeking out mental health services. Which is absolutely terrible considering the plethora of struggles men are facing mentally at the moment, to make therapy not only inaccessible, but also appeal to women is disgusting on behalf of the college and has actually infuriated me.

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That's all I have to say about my college experiences as of recent, as a 17 year old male I feel like young mens voices are rarely heard within the Mens Rights movement, and it's important that we collaborate with everyone else as a result of the dreadful education system and media alienation (specifically in the UK) at the moment. I'd be happy to discuss in the comments!