This is a great article. This is what feminism is about. We should not hold modern people to out dated, and wrong ideas of what people can and can't do just because of their gender. Society has moved on a bit and we now no longer have discussions about whether a woman can be a CEO, we're starting to move towards this way with men & parenting.
If you're a man and you agree with this article, just watch for the next person to complain about "feminists" or "feminazis" or "political correctness gone mad". That person wants to keep you in a box and doesn't think you can be a father.
I agree with your sentiment about what feminism is at its best but you're sugar coating the historical facts. 2nd wave feminism approaches gender roles as a zero sum game. They systematically marginalize any perspective on males that doesn't frame men as oppressors.
Yes, there are authentic strands of feminism and yes they can be inclusive of the male perspective. But these strands also co-exist in the context of hateful ideologies. Worse, good feminists form in-group social cohesion with hateful zealots in the hope of "supporting their sisters". There's really no room for men in such a hostile environment.
You sure about "2nd wave"? '2nd wave' feminism is usually for things like "It should be illegal to pay men and women differently for the same work", etc. Most of that battle has been won to most people. What's currently going on is sometimes called "3rd wave feminism".
As for your theory that 'good feminists' stick with 'hateful zealots' in solidatory, that's not borne out by evidence. There is loads of infighting within all groups, including feminists. Some feminist groups are pro-prostitution and pro-pornography, some think pornography and prostitution should be banned. Some feminist groups welcome trans women, some ban them (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Womyns_Music_Festival ).
(This infighting isn't unique to feminism, it happens in lots of communities. Just look at why we have both 'Open Source' and 'Free Software' (i.e. a split))
For the most part, even the feminist groups who welcome trans women are more accepting of feminists who consider trans women to be subhuman than they are of anyone who objects to those feminists. This is even true when, for example, the feminists in question have managed to get the law amended specifically so that the rape counselling services they run can turn away trans women who've been raped.
The issues of prostitution and pornography are even more interesting - most of the sex-positive feminists who fought against those being banned are still involved in much the same kinds of sex-positive activism as they always were, but they're not doing it from within the feminist movement for some reason, whereas the feminists trying to get them banned are part of the feminist mainstream.
they're not doing it from within the feminist movement for some reason, whereas the feminists trying to get them banned are part of the feminist mainstream.
You claim that the sex-positive people who you agree with don't call themselves feminists, but those that do things you don't like are called feminists, and hence it's OK to dislike all "feminists".
Except that's not true.
Example: "SlutWalks" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SlutWalk ) are protests where people walk/march around in revelaing/slutty clothes to protest at people who blame rape victims for getting raped based on they dress. It started in Toronto. What do the organisers of this call themselves ( http://www.slutwalktoronto.com/about/who ): "Heather Jarvis is a queer feminist activist. … Laura McLean is a feminist who … Erika is a sex-positive feminist who … ".
Sorry, but "feminism" can be pro-sex (or anti-sex or pro-porn or anti-porn, it's like trying to argue if GPL is less free or less free than BSD licence).
If you're a man and you agree with this article, just watch for the next person to complain about "feminists" or "feminazis" or "political correctness gone mad". That person wants to keep you in a box and doesn't think you can be a father.