whether or not men benefit from feminism has no bearing on whether feminism is worthwhile
put another way. i dont care about how men are impacted by feminism
already have people mad about this. okay here's another take. men should be feminists for no benefit.
just as white people should be anti-racism for no benefit, and cis people should be pro-trans for no benefit. the only "benefit" that should be required is the creation of a more just world, not because you, personally, actually do get something out of it.
This is all true. People should, and many people do, do work that benefits others for no benefit to themselves, because this is the right thing to do.
However, in practical terms, this is another example of People Will Not Just. If your movement relies on large groups of people Just Doing [thing that does not directly benefit them], your movement is fucked.
Your options, if you want real change and not just moral purity, are to show people how it does in fact benefit them, or be so loud, and so annoying, and so inconvenient, that supporting you in order to make you Stop That Already will register as a tangible benefit to the people who Will Not Just.
We're also up in the realm of theory, here.
Feminism is an idea and a philosophy. Feminists are the people who go out and do those ideas. Alright, fine, you've made a ring-fence around your definition of feminism to say that the discussion of men and feminism is not one you care about. It's bizarre that you'd do that, but fine.
But feminists have fought for and supported and pushed for causes that benefit men primarily and only secondarily benefit women, or whose benefit for women is difficult to even articulate directly. You're not defending feminism against some new idea, some threat of men shoving themselves into the equation, men are just naturally going to be a part of that equation when you're looking at real-world scenarios. You're trying to propose a new standard that has never really worked for feminism before.
It's not just "men who want to join feminism Will Not Just", it's "if you have a bunch of people who care very deeply about gender discrimination, they will end up considering the benefits to men of their policies, because of course they will." The women also Will Not Just. Nobody Will Just.
Very few feminists find it possible to only care about women when it comes to their feminism, because most of them aren't sexist. Unless you believe men have zero real problems, the only way you can care about only the impact on women when it comes to changing society is if you hold sexist beliefs, thinking women are inherently more weak and vulnerable. And to come back up to theory, that's... not going to lead to good feminism. That's going to lead to segregation/secessionist feminism, both of which suck and don't offer any real progress.
