Video Credit: Alyssa Williams and Leighann Guardino
As the women’s fight for equality sweeps over the United States, the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men has been a popular topic in work institutions, schools, and everyday life. However, as the feminist movement rises into the spotlight, another concept has gained more publicity as well- meninism.
Meninism, or menimism, is defined as a semi-satirical gender equality and men’s rights movement. The followers of this movement are referred to as meninists. Although most are under the impression that men are the only followers of this movement, women take part in it as well. Some females have expressed their frustration with the feminist movement and they are choosing to turn to what they believe is the next best option in fighting for gender equality.
Social media such as Twitter is largely responsible for the meninist’s success; the account is known for tweeting anti-feminist messages and photos. The leading meninist account is “Meninist Tweets,” which began about three years ago and now has over 900,000 followers; this account has been known to have many enemies because their tweets are considered offensive and sexist by some people, specifically feminists. “Meninism” has been a trending topic on this social media website multiple times. The account tweets out jokes and comments about issues such as sexism and sexual assault.
“I think the Twitter account takes it too far. Their tweets are rude and discredit everything meninism stands for,” a senior here at West states.
A portion of the meninist group satirizes the concept, as they make crude jokes about females and stereotype feminists. However, others utilize the hashtag to air genuine grievances with feminism. These meninists use the term to advocate men’s rights and criticize women for objectifying men; men are fighting to have equal treatment as women, and think that the feminist movement is too excessive.
“I think males are sometimes subjected to different things that females are able to take for granted. I think if females are allowed to fight for their own rights and beliefs then men should be allowed to do that as well,” says Sofia Santos, junior.
This rivalry between feminism and meninism has been a growing issue for the past couple of years and seems as though it will continue to rise in terms of publicity as the concept of gender equality remains prominent.