Male Feminists?

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So, the other day, gabrielleabelle made a post questioning the labeling of Angel as a feminist icon. The general consensus, not surprisingly, is that Angel is NOT the feminist icon we are looking for. But it did make me wonder - are there ANY male feminist icons in popular culture? I can't think of any.

Okay. "Icon" is a pretty high bar. How about just a portrayal of a male feminist character? Any medium. How many can you think of?

I'm also including gingerwall's list of criteria from the same post, just for reference. Your criteria may be different (I expect the third one is particularly difficult to find in pop culture, which might eliminate everybody, lol), but I thought it might be helpful for people who want guidelines.

Here would be my qualifications for the Best Male Feminist Role Model in All of Everything Ever:
- Let the women in his life be autonomous agents and make their own decisions.
- Listen to and carefully consider what women have to say about issues that affect both of them.
- Be aware of how organizations that he is a part of contribute to the oppression of the women in his life and work to change or protest those cultures, all the while getting feedback from those women to make sure he is accurately reflecting their lived experience.
- Encourage the women in his life to defy traditional gender roles and take on powerful positions, even at the expense of his own control and power.

Comments

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

To me it would be really important for a male feminist character that he doesn't just treat women ok, but that he's actively into the political concept. Feminism is something that is very often misrepresented by men as something that's not aiming at equality but at female dominance, so to me it's a defining feature if a man just does not opress women but also recognizes the reality that othern men do and doesn't fault them for standing up for themselves, even standing beside them.

Going by this creteria, I think Mal from Firefly somewhat fits the bill.

The breaking point being that he not just has no incentive to curb female autonomy but also that he's aware of male oppression as a problem. It shows with Mrs. Reynolds, with him being the one challenging the embodied Happy Hooker myth, with him picking Kaylee over a man to repair his ship and with Zoe being his most trusted second in command, who's opinion he always takes into consideration.

A character that also impressed me as a kid, though it's aeons since I've seen the series was Indiana jones in the youn indiana jones series (not in the movies naturallly), there's an epiosde where he actively engages with the women's rights movement, whch is something heoes good as never do.

Third there would be Alec from "The privilege of the sword" (by Ellen Kushner, which nobody seems to have read) who is imho the best example though certainly not a feminist role model, he's far too flawed for that, but he's a character, who also actively cares about feminism.
He's a sworn enemy to gender roles and the forced marriage of his sister and her inability to act up against it traumatized him.
He cuts into the autonomy of his niece quite a lot, though in the end a lot less than others did before him and ultimately giving her the opportunity to make her own descisions and standing up for herself. The book makes a great and rare distinction between protecting a woman and protecting her right to do as she pleases.

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Huh. I could never get past Mal's treatment of Inara enough to call him a feminist. I don't see him as acknowledging male oppression as a problem so much as being the problem. He embodies the reason the Happy Hooker myth doesn't work, because he still treats Inara like a whore.

He does include women equally in his crew, but that seems to me to be another of Joss' half-assed world-building efforts - in this 'verse, there is gender equality, oh, except for the fact that Mal treats Inara horribly because of her profession. (See also: in this 'verse, the dominant culture is a mix of Western and Chinese, oh, except there are no actual Chinese people around.)

"The privilege of the sword" (by Ellen Kushner, which nobody seems to have read)

Hee! True story - I checked out the first book from the library, and it's been sitting around waiting for my summer class to be over and I'm not overwhelmed with school reading.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

About Mal and Inara:

I don't really see it the same way. Firefly was criticised a lot because of the companion concept being seen as glorifying prostitution. I think the show was to some extent a discussion of the topic with two viewpoints that are found within feminist movements. One that says that prostitution could work without inherently being bad for women under the right circumstances. And the other one that says prostitution will always degrade women.

In my mind Inara promotes the first and Mal the second stance but both are feminist stances. Mal confronts Inara about what she does and points out the crude ugly sides, while Inara shows him that she's by no means in a constant state of oppression because of what she does.
Mal never judges her as amoral but he questions wether she is truly free (since that's a question so central to his own life).

They banter a lot, but I never thought he actually disrespected Inara (nor the woman he slept with on brothel planet). I saw those two as having a feminist discurse, not as one trying to opress the other.

And yay about you reading Swordspoint! Please please let me know how you like it. The first one is not exactly feminist though, except for a shortstory in the back, where EK addresses "Richard and Alec's inability to deal with the wretched situation women are in, in their society". The second book is all about the women though and elaborates on the topic from all sides.