Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Feminism was founded to give people who are usually silenced a voice. Unfortunately, though, it too often becomes dominated by voices that are already amplified. While men are welcome to be feminists, it can be easy to forget that there are things feminists don't owe men, particularly straight, white, cisgender ones — and that nobody does, for that matter, though patriarchy might dictate otherwise.
Over the past few years, more and more men have come out as feminists, which is great. Gender inequality hurts us all, and even if it didn't, supporting oppressed groups is just the right thing to do. But even in feminist circles, men often get more credit. Engineering student Jared Mauldin pointed this out after a letter he wrote to his school paper about the challenges women in tech face went viral. "Nothing I said was new, it has all been said a thousand times before. The difference is that I am a man," he told The Huffington Postabout the attention his letter received.
Even when men don't act entitled to feminists' spaces, honors, and consideration, they often get it. And in the process, they push out people who are more marginalized and stop those who know gender-based oppression best — members of the oppressed genders themselves — from doing important work.
Here are some things men aren't entitled to from feminists.