MASCULINISM: ORIGINS, CHARACTERISTICS, DIFFERENCES WITH FEMINISM - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Masculinism is a social movement that seeks to achieve gender equality between men and women from the male point of view. It is structured within a group of diverse ideologies and political, economic and cultural concerns, and has the purpose of analyzing the masculine formation of identity and gender issues.

Some think that it follows the parameters of the main objective of feminism, which is the search for equality, but with women seen from the male perspective. It is used in different environments and refers to the defense of human rights, promoting adherence and dissemination of their opinions, attitudes and values.

Masculinism is a movement that advocates for the rights of men. Source: pixabay.com

Although women have spent decades trying to achieve equal rights -which has generated the enactment of laws against female discrimination-, there are also movements made up of men who wield the idea that there is a very recurrent discrimination against the male gender and that they don't have that protection.

For example, there are different men's groups and organizations in Great Britain and the United States that defend their right to have custody of their children upon divorce. Likewise, they try to raise awareness about the models of sexual discrimination that exist against men and boys.

Some modern professors and philosophers argue that man has a greater chance of being called up to serve in the army, being a victim of violence and prone to being deprived of custody of his children, which in many cases can push him to suicide.

Origin

During the 20th century, masculinism developed as a response to the actions undertaken by a group of women who demanded fairness in their treatment with respect to men; they were confronting the androcentrism of the moment.

Masculinism has its origin in the so-called men's liberation movements in the 70s. The first movement split into two entities: one that supported feminism and the other that was absolutely adverse to this movement, even reaching the point of misogyny.

However, it was not solely a response to the feminism of the moment. Issues such as being drafted into military service and custody and raising of children were issues that were not linked to the feminist movement, but that had an impact on the men's union.

The dehumanization of gender

An extremist movement called the Manosphere was heavily questioned in the media for its radicalism. They were accused of being misogynistic and homophobic, and of being oriented towards the dehumanization of men and women. Their extremism came to be compared to that of white supremacists.

In 2004 the phrase MGTOW emerged. It appeared in the context of the men's rights group to replace the so-called XYZ forum, which was revoked several times in the early 2000s.

All these organizations appeared with the firm intention of setting precedents in relation to the place that men have historically occupied in the world, and to demonstrate that there has been an evolution within the social parameters that put them at a disadvantage, as women may feel.

The so-called gender asymmetry, according to which the woman is the one who suffers the abuse, has been decreasing before the advance of the opposite theory or gender symmetry, in which it is indicated that women attack men in the same proportion or level than these to them. In this scenario, the so-called reciprocal violence is evident.

In this way, it can be concluded that there were robust motivations that led to the emergence of masculinism as a means of expression for groups that felt especially vulnerable under the premise of being the "stronger sex."

Throughout history they have been able to prove the existence of certain circumstances that justify their proposals and arguments.

characteristics

The main characteristics of masculinism are those that describe its emblematic behaviors. These communities are marked and defined by the following peculiarities:

The male chauvinism

It is an idea that maintains that man is naturally superior to woman. He attributes to the male the function of head of the family, who protects and sustains the home.

Androcentrism

It is a concept that places man (male) as the center of the universe. Their opinion and vision of the world are the axis of societies and cultures.

Sexism

It is a social prejudice that discriminates on the basis of sex or gender. It also refers to the promotion of social stereotypes based on sexual differences.

The patriarchy

It is a type of social order in which the male sex is exclusively attributed authority and dominance over everything that makes up the social structure. He is the undisputed leader and, naturally, women and the family must adhere to his mandate.

Differences with feminism

The feminine and the masculine are terms whose psychological construct is naturally controversial, as they are embedded within social activism.

This produces a permanent challenge to the norm in an intentional way, in order to achieve changes within society that use persuasion through awareness campaigns.

Each movement uses reasons and arguments that support their ideas about their place and importance within society and tend to be discriminatory, excluding each other according to the psychological, genetic and biological characteristics that differentiate them within the range of the same species., the human.

Masculinism differs from feminism from its original motivations, since the former arises with the idea of ​​making the historical rights of man prevail and establishing that they too are victims of discrimination and abuse.

Instead, feminism emerged as the need and desire of women to enjoy the same social benefits as men.

Men's network

The great controversy that revolves around equity in pay still shows large gaps or gaps in wages that disadvantage women in developed countries, but there are cases that go beyond this norm. For example, currently in the UK women between the ages of 22 and 29 are outpacing men in pay.

This has helped to strengthen the idea that men should form their own support organizations, such as the well-known Men's Network in Brighton, southern England. His main goal is to help every man and boy in his community reach their full potential.

References

1. Laura, P. "What is masculinism?" (March 9, 2016) in Men United. Retrieved on July 29, 2019 from Varones Unidos: varonesunidos.com
2. De Castella, T. “The« masculinists »who fight for men's rights” (May 19, 2012) on BBC News. Retrieved on July 29, 2019 on BBC News: bbc.com
3. Muñoz, R. “Gender equality: masculinists vs. feminists? " (March 8, 2013), on DW: dw.com
4. Blais, Melissa and Dupuis ‐ Déri, ​​Francis. "Masculinism and the Antifeminist Countermovement" (January 2012) in Research Gate. Retrieved on July 29, 2019 in Research Gate: researchgate.net
5. Hardy, Ellen and Jiménez, Ana Luisa “Masculinity and gender” in Scielo. Retrieved on July 31, 2019 from Scielo: scielo.sld.cu
6. Arrieta Ever. "Feminism and machismo" in Differentiator. Retrieved on July 31, 2019 from Differentiator: differentiator.com
7. Clare, Silvia. "Feminism vs masculinism" in Medium corporation. Retrieved on July 31, 2019 from Medium corporation: medium.com