Andil Gosine, Contributor

This week, Flair starts a series of articles prepared by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). These offer a variety of perspectives on gender equality by a number of Caribbean academics and activists. They will offer their perspectives on gender equality, masculinity and femininity.

One of the best-kept secrets about feminism is this: women's liberation is good for men. We have heard a lot about how much greater equality between men and women improves the lives of women, but not much about what this means for men, leaving us with the wrong impression that if women gain, men lose.

Feminism good for men

Feminism sets out to liberate men, as it does women. It's a mistake to think that feminism is about turning power over to women to 'give the girls a chance to steer the ship', as some have put it. Some may see it that way, but, to me, the core objective of feminism has always been about the liberation of women from the imaginary meanings attached to their bodies, in a similar way that anti-racism is about seeking freedom from the attachments put on skin, hair and bones.

Feminism intervened to say, for example, that just because women had wombs did not mean that all women had to and could only be mothers. Just because they had body parts and body shapes that most men found sexually appealing, did not mean the entirety of their experience was reducible to their sexuality. Like anti-racists, feminists pointed out the truth: that bodies alone bore no relationship to intelligence, creativity or skill.

I learned this lesson early on, from the examples of the Caribbean women who often did things that might sometimes seem 'ungrandmotherly' (like chop cane, climb coconut trees, have a drink with the boys). Aunts who kissed off rules about when, and even if, they should get married and cousins who gave as good as they got in the yard.

In the process of freeing themselves, these women also demonstrated to me that I could also be free to be. That just as they could unshackle themselves from the social expectations put upon them, I too could be any kind of man I wanted to be.

Feminism is not just about freeing women from their bodies. It's also about liberating men from theirs as well, to free men from the burdens of masculinity, from the limited range of behaviours and activities that are supposed to be available to them. In my life, that has meant imagination of a world with more choices and less pressure.

Living up to certain expectations

When I compare the men of my father's generation to those of his children's, it's not difficult to see how feminism has benefited men. Even with the advantages patriarchal culture has afforded, the older men suffer the pressures of living up to certain expectations of being a man, whether that means being the main breadwinner, living up to a certain sexual or physical virility or showing no signs of vulnerability (stresses that research has shown, weaken men's health and well-being, and ultimately shorten their lives).

Younger men, while they still, certainly, bear many burdens of masculinity, have already benefited from feminist challenges to a patriarchy that has also been harmful to men. More anticipate being in relationships where earning income is not expected to be their responsibility alone, where it's possible to express emotions, including vulnerability and fear, where it's okay to lean on others for support.

Advanced capitalism

The suggestion is often made that women's liberation is behind absentee parenting by young Caribbean men, their falling behind girls at school and high unemployment rates. But these are largely consequences of global economic conditions and failures of the state to adequately understand and respond to state crises. Advanced capitalism, not women's gains, are to blame. Feminism: it's a good thing, for men.

Trinidad born and raised, Andil Gosine teaches Sociology at York University in Toronto. Send comments to: lifestyle@gleanerjm.com.