The world is full of men who don’t have time to Google feminism but have plenty of time to denounce it. Information is literally more easily accessible today than it has ever been before in the history of our species, but because misogyny is too often perceived as a women’s issue, the onus for explaining feminist theory online usually falls on the ladies of the Internet. It’s a struggle zine and comic creator Elizabeth Simins is all too familiar with:
I should start a “consulting” service where for a fee men can purchase my time to learn about why it’s ok for women to be angry at them
— Killizabeth Simins (@ElizSimins) October 3, 2014
And the mad genius really did it. As a reminder that, in her own words, it’s “not okay for men on the Internet to demand that women use their time to explain things to men for free,” Simins has designed “The Womansplainer,” a consulting service for “men who have better things to do than educate themselves about feminism” (and no ear for sarcasm, apparently).
A drop down menu lists the questions Simins will discuss with her clients:
- Why isn’t misandry hate speech? / Why isn’t reverse racism real?
- What about male victims of domestic violence/sexual assault/etc?
- What is intersectional feminism? What does “cis” mean?
- Do feminists hate sex/humor/fun?
- Are all feminists lesbians?
- When is a rape joke okay? Stop censoring my edgy humor!
- Aren’t you worried about alienating potential allies?
- Give me some examples of how women aren’t treated equally.
- Explain rape culture /the patriarchy / what “systemic” means.
So, lazy dudes, how to tell if you owe it to society to invest in a feminist’s time? If, upon reading the headline for this article, you zipped down to the comments to call me sexist and defend the honor of lazy men everywhere, you need the “Womansplainer.” Ditto if your Disqus name is “Devil’s Advocate,” if you use “free speech” as an excuse for behaving terribly on the Internet, or if you can’t understand why just ignoring harassment or misogyny online doesn’t feel like an option for some people.
And no, we do not need a competing “Mansplainer” service to make the consulting field more egalitarian. Everyone gets quite enough of that for free, thank you.
(via Jezebel)
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