For me, feminism was love at first sight.

Soon after my first course in the Women’s Studies department, I changed my major from political science to women’s studies. I will never turn back. I have sold my soul to feminism and will continue to share what I’ve learned to anyone who will listen, in the hopes they will do the same.

Many people that I speak with about feminism seem to agree with what the field has to say and offer. However, I have noticed that there is a huge gender disparity within the discipline. I ask: Where are the men in women’s studies courses? Why are men less likely to accept feminist concepts, and to acknowledge that the world is trapped by a patriarchal system? The only thing the feminist movement seems to be missing is male alliance. Men should be our comrades in struggle.

Steele’s observation fits with my experience of women’s studies. Though men might fear being marginalized in a women’s studies classroom, my male peers have never been forced to apologize, blamed, or personally reminded of their privilege in one of my classes. Moreover, a major part of the women’s studies curriculum is the recognition of one’s own privilege, so that we might be conscious of how our privilege affects the “isms” within our society.

Men’s fear of marginalization is very telling. Presumptions about what a women’s studies course is like or how feminism is defined are passively planted by the patriarchy, in order to discourage men and women from taking part in the movement and ending gender-based oppression.

Nishant Mehra, a student in the Sexualities program at PSU, helps us understand this. “There are hierarchies and there are certain power structures that cause people to be oppressed indirectly,” Nishant explains. “If more men participate in women’s studies courses, one thing that may happen is that that power structure would be threatened.”

The power structure he refers to would be the patriarchy, a system of hierarchies run by males, and with a singularly white male perspective. Those who hold power create privilege and perpetuate stereotypes in order to further establish and maintain that power. The feminist movement set out to dismantle this type of power structure, and to establish equality among people who are marginalized, objectified, and exploited within the status quo. This is why the patriarchy fears the movement and why feminism is misunderstood by society at large.

Rather than accepting stereotypes about feminism, men should experience women’s studies courses for themselves. They might be pleasantly surprised to find that not all feminists are man-haters, that professors in the field are perfectly sane, and that many of their assumptions are inaccurate. By joining the feminist movement we can collectively end the oppression of men and women. Come on, man, be an ally and actively advocate equality!-g