It seems like whenever some movement pops up online, there’s a backlash from people trying to make that movement “equal” or include everyone. Whether it’s men crying out that feminism should be re-labelled as egalitarianism or people fighting back against #BlackLivesMatter with #AllLivesMatter, some people just can’t stand that there are movements to help people that aren’t them.
Recently, I was reading a Reddit thread where someone was trying to explain the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The movement came about after more and more cases of black people being killed by people in authority – Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, etc. The idea behind the movement is to raise awareness and speak out about unarmed black people being killed by police – a pretty decent purpose for a social justice movement, right?
Well, some people didn’t like that and came up with the #AllLivesMatter hashtag, effectively erasing the point of the movement. I chalked that up to “white men on the Internet being sad about being excluded” and tried to ignore it. But it wasn’t until that Reddit thread that I could see the problems people had with #BlackLivesMatter, which frankly, were insane. They thought the movement was saying “Only black lives matter” when that wasn’t what it was saying at all. It honestly did not even occur to me that anyone could ever think these people were saying, “Only black lives matter, and screw everyone else.”
But that’s what all these people on Reddit thought and that’s why they were mad. Many said they should have added the word “too” to the hashtag to make it clear. But here’s the thing: Everyone who is not a complete idiot with no sense of context understands what #BlackLivesMatter means. Actor Matt McGorry recently spoke out about #BlackLivesMatter, saying “#BlackLivesMatter doesn’t mean that other lives don’t. Like people who say ‘Save the rainforest’ aren’t saying ‘F*** all other types of forests.” McGorry also said that any “decently effective” movement is about one issue. The reason #BlackLivesMatter isn’t about speaking out against everyone killed by police is that it would water down the racial issue that comes with this spate of black people being killed by police. It divides the point of the movement and makes it difficult to be cohesive. What’s an example of a movement being about multiple things at once? Occupy. And I still haven’t found anyone who understands what the movement even wanted.
Feminism has the same problem. Again, it’s usually men who say the feminism title shouldn’t be used. It should be called egalitarianism because the movement should be about everyone being equal, not just women. This usually comes from the people who think that feminism is about hating and being better than men, which it is not. Feminism also doesn’t just fight for women: believe it or not, feminists also fight for men’s rights, since many problems men face are a result of women being pigeonholed in society: men having a harder time with custody battles because it reflects society’s view that women are nurturers and men being looked down on for showing emotion because it reflects the fact that emotions are seen to be a female thing. God forbid men be like women.
When you protest a movement by saying it should include everyone or be about everyone, it erases the struggles these particular groups face. Whether or not you identify as a feminist, it’s pretty obvious that women face challenges that men don’t. The movement can’t be effective if people are also dividing their time by trying to fight a million injustices at once. Saying that no one should be murdered by police erases the fact that lately, it’s been unarmed black people being killed by police. It dulls the message and makes it more difficult to accomplish something. Hard as it may be, white people and males who think this is somehow oppressive need to just be quiet and accept that they’ve got it pretty good.
