New York Magazine’s The Cut had a fascinating piece this week about “male feminists.” It’s what I’ve been saying for a while – I enjoy the fact that the ladies are getting questions about feminism, equal pay and all of that, but I dislike the fact that the questions are only being asked of celebrity women. The Cut tried to right that wrong, and they compiled a list of men reacting to the question “Are you a feminist?” Just know, I tried doing Google searches on some of these quotes to see if they were all recent, and I think that they are. Meaning, I don’t think The Cut pulled these quotes from random interviews done years ago. You can read the full piece here, and here are some of the more interesting reactions to “Are you a feminist?”
Jason Momoa: “I wasn’t raised by a man. I was raised by a single mother my whole life. It’d be ridiculous for me to say that I didn’t believe in it. They’re the strongest beings in the world.”
Salman Rushdie: “Yes. What else is there to be? Everything else is being an a–hole. These are your choices. I have three sisters, and no brothers. In my family it is all women, and they are very strong, opinionated, professional women, and the idea that they would be in some way disadvantaged by comparison to men was just ludicrous, and if you had tried to suggest it to them you’d have got hit. So I learned it early.”
Anthony Mackie: “That’s a very strange concept to me, and I don’t think I know enough about it to answer that question.”
Cheyenne Jackson: “A feminist? Of course. I mean all of the things that being a feminist stands for. I very much liken it to being a gay man. We have always been like, Hey, what about me? It’s the same kind of thing. Little by little it’s coming along.”
Harrison Ford: “Yeah, because I like women and I respect women.”
Zachary Quinto: “I think the idea of being a feminist is evolving in our world. Especially now, with these movements toward equality of all kinds, I feel like I don’t limit it to feminism, I just sort of consider myself a humanist, I imagine.”
Kelsey Grammer: “Oh gosh. Oh yeah, I’ve always been a feminist. I think that feminism includes just being proud and comfortable in your skin as a woman and a man being comfortable in his skin. That’s where I live with it. I’m a huge supporter of women.”
Denis O’Hare: “Absolutely. I always have been. I think it’s shocking how much more work we have to do. Someone like Paul Ryan who can actually say that he’ll take a job only if they will allow him to spend more time with his family — well, what woman gets to do that? Does she get to negotiate that same package with her job or is she told to take a hike? We have a long way to go. We need a woman president. It’s about time, as an example.”
Matt McGorry: “Oh, absolutely. In my understanding, it’s like what it might be like to be a Catholic. You can be like, Oh, I’m a Catholic; I go to church once a year. Or you can be the pope. … Ultimately, if there were as many male feminists as there are female feminists, we wouldn’t need to be fighting for equality.”
Darren Aronofsky: “Yes. Absolutely, of course. It’s a stupid question. Sorry.” [Walks away.]
Anthony Mackie’s answer is NO BUENO. Of course, he’s the same guy who thinks it’s totally cool to say that a woman’s job is “to make daddy a sandwich.” I think the most surprising person might be Kelsey Grammer? I wasn’t expecting that answer from him, given his politics and his history with women. My favorite answer might be Salman Rushdie’s though! And hey, at least 90% of these answers are better than Meryl Streep’s answer to the same exact question.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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