Ladies, I cannot stress this enough. Men are not the enemy. Men are not the problem. Only a part of it. It is far far more complicated, and yet far simpler, than that. Being a true feminist is NOT about hating men, as so many have claimed. Because the test of true confidence is not in who you can blame, or who you can make smaller to make yourself seem bigger – it’s about believing in and loving yourself for who you are, regardless of what is around you. True confidence, true strength, comes from the inside – not from the outside.
And men struggle with this too. I would venture it’s even harder in some ways for men to embrace both the strong and the soft in themselves, as being a Tough Cookie entails.
Now I’m not saying that Tough Cookie’s message will be shifting more towards men, merely that we can all work together to become stronger, sweeter, happier people – regardless of gender. Besides, there’s already a group focused on these struggles for men. They’re called A Voice For Men, and they’re putting on the first International Conference on Men’s Issues later this month, on June 27-28.
The unfortunate thing is that not everyone agrees men should get to voice their struggles and strive for these same Tough Cookie ideals. In response to their conference plans, A Voice For Men has been receiving death threats from women claiming to be “feminists.” This prompted them to write a message to all the feminists out there, hoping to find ones that aren’t like that, but rather embrace the idea that being pro-women doesn’t mean being anti-men.
I heartily agree in this mentality, and am ashamed to think of women who would threaten the rights of men, when we have known how much struggle it was to secure rights ourselves. Our history and struggles should have taught us to be compassionate not combative.
Thankfully, many women (and men) out there are of the same mind as me, and of the A Voice For Men folks. So we just need to make sure our voices are heard, and others follow by example, so we can all live together in harmony with equal rights and equal respect for Tough Cookies of all shapes, sizes and genders!
Source: A Voice For Men
