Male Feminism<br >STEPHEN HEATH<br > Men s relation to feminism is an impossible one. This is not said<br >sadly nor angrily (though sadness and anger are both known and<br >common reactions) but politically. Men have a necessary relation to<br >feminism--the point after all is that it should change them too， that<br >it involves learning new ways of being women and men against and<br >as an end to the reality of women s oppression--and that relation is<br >also necessarily one of a certain exclusion--the point after all is that<br >this is a matter for women， that it is their voices and actions that must<br >determine the change and redefinition. Their voices and actions， not<br >ours: no matter how "sincere，" "sympathetic" or whatever， we are<br >always also in a male position which brings with it all the implications<br >of domination and appropriation， everything precisely that is being<br >challenged， that has to be altered. Women are the subjects of fem-<br >inism， its initiators， its makers， its force; the move and the join from<br >being a woman to being a feminist is the grasp of that subjecthood.<br >Men are the objects， part of the analysis， agents of the structure to<br >be transformed， representatives in， carriers of the patriarchal mode;<br >and my desire to be a subject there too in feminism--to be a fem-<br >inist-is then only also the last feint in the long history of their col-<br >onization. Which does not mean， of course not， that I can do nothing<br >in my life， that no actions are open to me， that I cannot respond to<br >and change for feminism (that would be a variant on the usual jus-<br >tification for the status quo， men are men and that s that); it just means<br >that I have to realize nevertheless--and this is an effort not a plati-<br >tude-that I am not where they are and that I cannot pretend to be<br >(though men do， colonizing， as they always have done)， which is the<br >impossibility of my， men s， relation.<br > Nothing in the above is intended to suggest a kind of criterion of<br >immediacy. Women are not feminists by virtue of the fact alone of<br >being women: feminism is a social-political reality， a struggle， a com-<br >mitm~ent， women become feminists. Simply， the;negotiation between<br > lived experience and feminism is for them dire~j~feminism includes<br > that experience as its material and its energy， p~ducing a kfiowledge<br > of it for action， for change. The contradictions that may exist between，<br > say， a woman s experience in her family in the defined roles of wife<br > and housewife and mother which may be felt by her as the authentic<br > terms of her being， where she is really "herself，" and the perspectives<br ><br >