After thinking about it, I've decided not to drop it

I decided not to lay off the whole women blogging thing that has come out of the post at Matt Stoller's blog. I might have blown it off, but he was condescending to a blogger I think is one of the few who is truly innovative and interesting, Trish Wilson, who is out there fighting it out over women's rights in a place that many feminists don't address properly--the area of divorce and child custody. But more than that, I have a serious problem with what he said.

You know, I do a lot of work on this issue because it's something I care about. I dislike the accusation that I'm 'just noticing' because I'm a guy. More to the point, feminism doesn't belong to women, and until you realize that we're in this together, the more marginalized you will continue to be.

It's startling to see a man who considers himself a feminist miss the mark so completely. I read that shortly after I defended Ampersand over at his blog, where I innocently believed that feminist men understand the issues at hand. Stoller pulls rank on Trish here and worse he does it while thinking he's an egalitarian sort. She should be grateful that a man is here to deal with feminism. What does she think, that feminism belongs to women? One would almost think that women's rights is an issue women worry about; we need to be quiet and let men figure out what they intend to let us have.

This is a brutally obvious example of a man whose mouth is writing checks his ass won't cash. Feminism isn't just an intellectual exercise, it's a reality that men need to confront and now. It's one thing to say that women are as smart as men; it's another entirely to act like you believe it. If you are a blogger and you believe it, you act on that belief. You link to women, you promote feminism, you *gasp* concede that a woman occasionally thinks of something first. You quit thinking that "women's issues" are secondary things. Nothing that affects more than half the population is a minor issue.

Seriously, any honest progressive knows that the two most major issues are racism and sexism. I'm not saying that the world would be perfect if we could magically leave racism and sexism behind. But I will say this--it would be a great deal harder to justify things like war without racism and sexism to bolster arguments. I'm not good on racism for sure, but I try to be humble on that particular subject and let people who know more tell me what they know. Men who wish to embrace feminism should be open themselves.

Carl Sagan made one of the most eloquent pro-feminist arguments I've ever heard coming from a man. As a scientist, he was inclined to look at the facts. And the facts were that societies that made female empowerment a priority did better than those that didn't. The correlation is so startling that it should give anyone pause--it seems like the surefire way to improve the overall standard of living is to focus specifically on improving the lives of women. It makes sense--empower those who have quietly sat on the sidelines of history, paying the price for mistakes they have no control over and you might see some of those mistakes disappear.

Men who blog and want to be feminist have one major obligation--read female bloggers and link to them. My blogroll is 50% female, so why can't they do that? The sad thing is that conservatives get this--the Republicans put forward women whenever they can to grab some diversity guilt. Why can't those of us who actually believe that women have something to contribute actually work to make that belief a reality for others?

Edited to add: Astarte kicks ass and takes names on the subject.