What would it take to get the left side of the aisle in general to genuinely acknowledge and criticize double standards around men and gender roles?

Title_IX_For_All · 2025-04-15T18:21:12+00:00

Nothing less than giving up the entire binary of oppressor/oppressed into which all groups are funneled (or at least discarding it when it comes to men and women) along with a variety of other dogmas that effectively form the quasi-religious belief system of progressive identity politics.

For example, filtering all groups into the strict binary of oppressor/oppressed just doesn't work in cases where (1) both compared groups have historically faced discrimination, or (2) where the "privileged" group exerts intra-group competition that is orders of magnitude fiercer and harsher than it has exerted on the other group. Both of which apply when comparing men and women, both historically and presently.

There are many other quasi-religious beliefs that are embraced by progressivism that would have to be discarded as well.

Privilege is a kind of original sin that one must confess and atone for by serving and deferring to marginalized groups. And of course, the privileged group is always dogmatically determined by the apex fallacy: assuming the properties of the topmost members of a group are generally shared by the members of that group. Like a theory of trickle-down economics, but instead it's a theory of trickle-down privilege. This doesn't work well when it comes to men and women because men both "dominate" at the top and bottom of society.
"Garden of Eden"-style myths. In Christian theology, there was no sin before the Fall of Man. In Progressivism, there was no original sin (privilege) before white male capitalism from whence all evils flow.
Blank slatism: the dogma that all sex differences are socially constructed and biology and evolution play no important role.
Unfalsifiable belief systems. In fundamentalist Christian theology, all science (no matter how factual) that disconfirms a religious belief is hand-waved away as being "from the devil," "God testing our faith," and so forth. In Progressivism, all science that disconfirm any of the above in regard to sex are hand-waved away as "patriarchy reasserting itself." Critical thinking is not even attempted; it's shut down before it has a chance to begin. Science disconfirms that men and women are different? That's just sexist science.

But asking them to discard this would be like asking fundamentalist Christians to deny the resurrection of Christ (or perhaps more appropriately, asking Young Earth Creationists to deny that the world is 8,000 years old). It's not really that they have a choice to do it. It's that they can't. Just like those who are devoutly religious, they no longer possess cognitive reasoning when it conflicts with their belief system. They are, essentially, damaged.

Double_Aught_Squat · 2025-04-15T18:16:42+00:00

It's going to take more progressive men like myself bowing out of the fight in order to get ourselves heard.

My apathy has me sitting on the fence until such time.

Previous-Artist-9252 · 2025-04-15T18:14:19+00:00

I think a lot of actual progressive and leftists are already in favor of this. Certainly large chunks of feminist theory (and queer theory) are in favor of this.

That said, I have my doubts that “comment sections of TikTok proposal videos” are full of people who are eagerly reading Mariame Kaba and bell hooks, much less applying their theory to the comments they write.

Additionally, most political polling in the US divides us into conservatives, moderates, and liberals. I would not consider most liberals in the US to be particularly interested in ending gender roles, especially in light of liberals and the current wave of transphobia, and actual leftists are a very small number of the population.

OffensiveBias_117 · 2025-04-15T18:44:35+00:00

A Genie with 3 wishes

Prestigious_Log_9044 · 2025-04-15T18:09:27+00:00

Pigs sprouting wings.

AcolyteOfCynicism · 2025-04-15T19:54:24+00:00

My current strategy is come at it from a different angle, and first try to get them to see how capitalism in the form of NeoLiberalism has co-opted the left and social progressive moments so they never become a threat to actual power structure. A true reevaluation of gender norms would mean confronting how men have been exploited for their labor/service. Which hits a bit to close to union talking points for some. Also it means challenging this idea that women working is inheriantly empowering. Is it though? If most women, people really, are working deadend jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, is that empowering? Or is the message presented in such a way to be a virtuous smoke screen.

meeralakshmi · 2025-04-15T19:58:44+00:00

Thanks for the shoutout if you were referencing a post of mine 😂

ChaosCron1 · 2025-04-15T21:18:35+00:00

"On the other hand if people say "a REAL man pays for the date/ ring" etc, nobody would ever seem to be genuinely upset by it."

I mean I see people challenge this constantly on social media. Not in niche communities, but like mainstream posts on Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Could you link the reddit post about that tik tok?

Title	What would it take to get the left side of the aisle in general to genuinely acknowledge and criticize double standards around men and gender roles?
Author	Suspicious_Wash_7382
Upvotes	23
Comments	18
Date	April 15, 2025 5:53 AM UTC (1 year ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/1jzkheq/what_would_it_take_to_get_the_left_side_of_the/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/what-would-it-take-to-get-the-left-side-of-the.1549693 https://theredarchive.com/post/1549693

Comments