Posts Written by

Colby Lewis had a baby and unwittingly became a spokesmen for feminism: Male Allies in Feminist Movement

So, today I was minding my own business, as usual, and without a doubt, patriarchy smacked me in the face—through an update on my twitter timeline.  I saw the reaction of Hay Ladies blogger,  Andrea Grimes, to the ignorance of Richie Whitt, Dallas Observer sports blogger.  I would think that this is how Colby Lewis of the Texas Rangers felt after he made the choice to utilize his legal and contractual privilege of taking a day off from work to witness the birth of his child, smacked in the face. I say privilege because we still live in a nation (read: world) where paternity/family is an anomaly.   Whitt had the audacity to question this man’s personal choice to be a responsible father.

Grimes explains that Whitt has made it his job to

perpetuate a system of toxic masculinity wherein men are only real dudes if they don’t do too much of that being-a-human-being shit, like trying to physically and emotionally support their families, witness once-in-a-lifetime moments and demonstrate that there’s more to life than a paycheck .”

I will not use this post to further explain how disgusting Whitt’s words and sentiment are because Grimes does a pretty awesome job at it here. What I will do, however, is tell a little story about allies.

I am a feminist AND a man—two distinct identities. Many people assume these identities should be conflicting, but that comes from a lack of understanding of how feminism and masculinity ...