I deliberated on whether or not this was worth posting in case it seemed a bit 'low effort' but I think it's rather interesting in a retrospective way.
While perusing Pinterest for scans of old fashion images and articles from 90s magazines and catalogues, I came across this article from the pages of Sassy: a teen magazine aimed at young women which ran from 1988 to 1996.
As per the thread title, it's an article entitled 'The Annoying New Boy Feminism' which lays out their frustration with male feminists, or rather guys using the label to score or get in women's good books - Nice Guys™, I guess, to use modern parlance? There are mentions of and potshots taken at 'white male(s)', patriarchy, women's studies classes, guys who are too sensitive/emotional, equal pay, the blurry line between drunken sex and 'date-rape'... sound familiar?
I tracked the source of the image to the tumblr page it was posted on which revealed it was from the June issue in 1994, meaning that this piece is over 26 years old. And the entire thing could be published today with basically zero alterations, something I found amusing, sad, and even troubling.
Point 3 of the article, in particular, is straight out of the 2020 playbook. I'll provide the text here as it's the most relevant part:
3. Boys who sob "No, we're more oppressed!
Far and away the most irksome. Michael Crichton writes a book about a woman sexually harassing a man (yeah, happens all the time); men go on talk shows to reveal that they too are being battered (uh-huh, the fact that statistics overwhelmingly indicate it's husbands who are pummelling wives means doodly squat); foreskin-deprived crybabies form groups to discuss the cruelness that is circumcision (and compare it to female genital mutilation in Third World countries). These boys have co-opted the language of feminism to turn themselves into big victims. Waah! Poor, poor you! It's so hard to be male and make more money and have more power! Oh, cry me a river.
I just found it rather interesting how relevant this all this despite the article being so old - I mean, it's less than 4 years shy of being published three decades ago. If nothing else, I suppose this provides some evidence to the contrary for those who think that this aspect of feminism is something that was born out of the post-tumblr age, which I believe is what a lot of people mean when they refer to the current 3rd (or even 4th) wave.
