Talk:Masculism: Difference between revisions
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: {{ping|SlimVirgin}} have you been following this discussion page? There is a preponderance of evidence pointing out that there is a definitional difference between masculism and masculinism (just as there is between [[feminism]] and [[femininism]]). Your edits are further conflating these terms which have been incorrectly conflated on this article for at least 13 years, and that conflation has been repeated in some recent scholarship leading to [[WP:CIRCULAR]] and [[WP:CITOGENESIS]]. -- [[User:Netoholic|Netoholic]] [[User talk:Netoholic|@]] 00:16, 23 May 2019 (UTC) |
: {{ping|SlimVirgin}} have you been following this discussion page? There is a preponderance of evidence pointing out that there is a definitional difference between masculism and masculinism (just as there is between [[feminism]] and [[femininism]]). Your edits are further conflating these terms which have been incorrectly conflated on this article for at least 13 years, and that conflation has been repeated in some recent scholarship leading to [[WP:CIRCULAR]] and [[WP:CITOGENESIS]]. -- [[User:Netoholic|Netoholic]] [[User talk:Netoholic|@]] 00:16, 23 May 2019 (UTC) |
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:: Most sources say the terms are used interchangeably. But my question was why you reverted the South Africa copy edit. [[User:SlimVirgin|SarahSV]] <small><sup>[[User_talk:SlimVirgin|(talk)]]</sup></small> 00:40, 23 May 2019 (UTC) |
:: Most sources say the terms are used interchangeably. But my question was why you reverted the South Africa copy edit. [[User:SlimVirgin|SarahSV]] <small><sup>[[User_talk:SlimVirgin|(talk)]]</sup></small> 00:40, 23 May 2019 (UTC) |
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::: Some sources ''think'' they are used interchangeably exactly because Wikipedia and OED conflate the terms ([[WP:CIRCULAR]]). There is exactly one source, the OED, which claims they are direct synonyms, but even in the definition they give they cite "Advocacy of the rights of men;" and "adherence to or promotion of opinions, values, etc., regarded as typical of men" as separate clauses. Citing dictionaries directly is often problematic. Wikipedia's articles are [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a dictionary|meant to be about ''topics'' not words]]. So even if the OED gives a single word definition that combines two distinct topics, that does not mean we combine them in one article. There are masculist groups and people which are allies to feminism. There are masculist groups which are supportive of femininity. By continuing to do so, you are misrepresenting those movements, misrepresenting the sources above, and continuing the damage Wikipedia has done to these words for all this time. -- [[User:Netoholic|Netoholic]] [[User talk:Netoholic|@]] 01:08, 23 May 2019 (UTC) |
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Requested move 13 May 2019
- The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
The result of the move request was: Withdrawn to discuss alternative solutions. -- Netoholic @ 03:11, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
– These two terms have somewhat different origins but have largely converged on meaning and there was a 2005 consensus to redirect. We should use the title that is more WP:COMMONNAME and expected as a search term indicated by: Google Ngrams, Google Scholar: Masculism has 469 results, Masculinism has 9450 results. Both of the target titles have non-trivial edit histories, so suggestions on how to handle that would be appreciated. -- Netoholic @ 03:47, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
- Weak Oppose I'm not convinced that this is the common name. "Masculism" yields more Google search results than does "masculinism". It also seems more logical to me that since it is basically the mirror image of feminism that it would be masculism, since nobody really uses femininism. Rreagan007 (talk) 04:43, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
- Rreagan007: You didn't give numbers of results, but mine shows 122k vs 109k - a pretty slim margin. Just by virtue of the Wikipedia article being named what it is may account for that discrepancy. Keep in mind that WP:COMMONNAME depends on what its called in reliable sources, which the Google Ngrams (Google Books) and Scholar links get us closer to estimating. I also checked the NOW Corpus which looks at recent newspapers and magazines, and masculism has 4 results, while masculinism has 24. I'd ask you to reconsider your vote, or, if you have any other evidence, please add it. -- Netoholic @ 20:00, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
- I'll keep an open mind and monitor this nomination to see what other people think. I get the feeling that neither one of these terms is really all that common, and as to which is more common I'm not yet convinced one way or the other. Rreagan007 (talk) 21:51, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
- Rreagan007: You didn't give numbers of results, but mine shows 122k vs 109k - a pretty slim margin. Just by virtue of the Wikipedia article being named what it is may account for that discrepancy. Keep in mind that WP:COMMONNAME depends on what its called in reliable sources, which the Google Ngrams (Google Books) and Scholar links get us closer to estimating. I also checked the NOW Corpus which looks at recent newspapers and magazines, and masculism has 4 results, while masculinism has 24. I'd ask you to reconsider your vote, or, if you have any other evidence, please add it. -- Netoholic @ 20:00, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
- Comment: This template exists to create WP:FALSEBALANCE between the Men's Rights movement and feminism, and gives undue weight to fringe ideology (WP:FRINGE). it should either be deleted, or renamed to something not associated with the Men's Rights Movement and drastically reworked so that its focus is no longer on MRA-related topics. WanderingWanda (talk) 02:14, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- First, if it was WP:FRINGE, there wouldn't be Masculinism has 9450 results in Google Scholar discussing it. Second, ideologies like masculinism and feminism are not provable/disprovable scientifically in the way FRINGE is meant to address. Third, the men's rights movement is its own topic included in this one, but not the same. Fourth, if you think male-focused ideologies are not mainstream, you're in a bubble and should expand your sources of information. -- Netoholic @ 02:20, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- Meanwhile, there are 1,020,000 results in Google Scholar discussing Feminism, about 100 times more. (Perhaps we should consider keeping the Masculism sidebar but making it 100 times smaller than the Feminism sidebar...) WanderingWanda (talk) 02:32, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- Please show some professionalism. -- Netoholic @ 02:45, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- Meanwhile, there are 1,020,000 results in Google Scholar discussing Feminism, about 100 times more. (Perhaps we should consider keeping the Masculism sidebar but making it 100 times smaller than the Feminism sidebar...) WanderingWanda (talk) 02:32, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- First, if it was WP:FRINGE, there wouldn't be Masculinism has 9450 results in Google Scholar discussing it. Second, ideologies like masculinism and feminism are not provable/disprovable scientifically in the way FRINGE is meant to address. Third, the men's rights movement is its own topic included in this one, but not the same. Fourth, if you think male-focused ideologies are not mainstream, you're in a bubble and should expand your sources of information. -- Netoholic @ 02:20, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- Comment: WanderingWanda (talk · contribs) has canvassed a specific partisan WikiProject and a specific article talk page in attempts to target editors that have known viewpoints. This continued disruption of what is a RM designed to handle a simple spelling issue needs to stop. -- Netoholic @ 03:42, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- I've followed the rules of WP:Canvassing. I've left
Neutral
,Nonpartisan
, andOpen
notices onWikiProjects ...which may have interest in the topic under discussion
anddirectly related
articles: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Gender Studies, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Feminism, Talk:Man, and Talk:Men's rights movement (If you check the history of this page you'll see that I also, uh, posted a notice here, before I realized that this is the page that the RM discussion is happening on!) (Incidentally, my proposal is not really a response to yours. I came here to make mine before I knew yours existed.) WanderingWanda (talk) 03:51, 14 May 2019 (UTC)- Firstly, its generally rare for any specific RM to have notifications posted on talk pages. This RM in particular is about a simple spelling difference. Selective notification of WikiProjects can be WP:Votestacking when one can reasonably expect that WikiProject to hold certain views. Note that I did not complain about the post on WT:WikiProject Gender Studies, which this does fall under and is supposed to have balanced participants (even though I still think any talk page notifications for this low-level of an RM is indiscriminate, disruptive, and unnecessary). We don't have to invite the whole encyclopedia to every minor RM about spelling - but in particular we should not invite groups diametrically opposed to the topic area of that RM. -- Netoholic @ 04:08, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- This is no longer just a "minor RM about spelling". Do you have faith in these templates? Do you think they're neutral and worthy of inclusion in the encyclopedia? If so then you shouldn't fear some scrutiny, and if not, well, you should welcome people coming in to improve them. WanderingWanda (talk) 04:21, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- Firstly, its generally rare for any specific RM to have notifications posted on talk pages. This RM in particular is about a simple spelling difference. Selective notification of WikiProjects can be WP:Votestacking when one can reasonably expect that WikiProject to hold certain views. Note that I did not complain about the post on WT:WikiProject Gender Studies, which this does fall under and is supposed to have balanced participants (even though I still think any talk page notifications for this low-level of an RM is indiscriminate, disruptive, and unnecessary). We don't have to invite the whole encyclopedia to every minor RM about spelling - but in particular we should not invite groups diametrically opposed to the topic area of that RM. -- Netoholic @ 04:08, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- I've followed the rules of WP:Canvassing. I've left
So, stupidly, last night I missed that this nomination was proposing that the article itself should be moved, and I thought this was just about the names of the templates...
- I Support the move of the article to Masculinism per WP:COMMONNAME, the Google Scholar results, etc. Furthermore:
- If major changes aren't made to the templates then, fine, move the template to Masculinism too, HOWEVER, in my view, the templates need to be reworked and renamed. Either the templates' focus should shift away from masculinism/the men's rights movement and cover masculinity as a whole, in which case they should be named something like "Boys and men", "The human male", or "Masculinity"... OR the templates should be renamed "Men's rights movement" per WP:COMMONNAME. 1. Masculinism is closely associated with the men's rights movement 2. The articles linked in the Masculinism template mention "men's rights" much more often than "masculinism". 3. "Masculinism" is a much more obscure term than "men's rights movement". The only reason to have "Masculinism" templates instead of "Men's rights" templates is to create some sort of word-symmetry with the "feminism" templates. Such symmetry is not necessary. WanderingWanda (talk) 19:13, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
Counter-proposal
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Masculism → Boys and men- Template:Masculinism → Template:Boys and men
- Template:Masculism sidebar → Template:Boys and men sidebar
- Important note: I realized I made a stupid mistake. I do not think the Masculism article itself should be moved to Boys and men. My idea is solely that the masculism/masculinism templates should be changed. (This is why one shouldn't try making complex proposals late at night!) (Netoholic, Rreagan007, MJL.) WanderingWanda (talk) 18:45, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
The words "Masculism" and "Masculinism" are both so non-mainstream that my spellchecker doesn't even think they're real words. These templates create a false balance between masculism/men's rights and feminism, even though the latter is much more mainstream and has much more coverage in reliable sources than the former. (As noted above, Google Scholar returns literally one hundred times more results for "Feminism" than "Masculinism".) I don't have a problem with the articles on men, boys, etc. having male-focused templates but the title and focus of those templates should be mainstream. The title I've proposed is inspired in part by the recently-released APA Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men.
- WP:LEAD:
Wikipedia doesn't lead, we follow.
- WP:FRINGE:
Wikipedia is not and must not become the validating source for non-significant subjects.
- WP:NPOV:
neutral point of view...means representing fairly, proportionately, and, as far as possible, without editorial bias
- WP:FALSEBALANCE:
Giving "equal validity" can create a false balance
- WP:LEAD:
WanderingWanda (talk) 03:06, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- Oppose counter proposal which broadens the topic range too far, to the point that categories (Category:Men) already handle such navigation. This is designed as an WP:Article series WP:SIDEBAR for topics related to Masculinism. As noted above, your claims about FRINGE/FALSEBALANCE are unfounded (this ideology exists and is prevalent), and makes no sense in the context of a navigation bar. Even {{Alternative medicine sidebar}} exists, and most of those topics really are scientifically FRINGE. Your spellchecker is not a reliable source. -- Netoholic @ 03:20, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- The alternative medicine sidebar is (hopefully) not placed on articles about actual medicine, but just alternative medicine. If the masculism sidebar was only placed on masculism-related articles I wouldn't be making this proposal. There's one of two options, here: either the masculism template morphs itself into something mainstream, or it stays out of mainstream articles. WanderingWanda (talk) 03:34, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- Third option - your view of the "mainstream" is itself not mainstream. -- Netoholic @ 03:37, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- The alternative medicine sidebar is (hopefully) not placed on articles about actual medicine, but just alternative medicine. If the masculism sidebar was only placed on masculism-related articles I wouldn't be making this proposal. There's one of two options, here: either the masculism template morphs itself into something mainstream, or it stays out of mainstream articles. WanderingWanda (talk) 03:34, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- Comment WanderingWanda, wouldn't Template:Masculinity sidebar be the best fit? I also don't see a reason to rename the article based off of your nomination statement. –MJL ‐Talk‐☖ 05:55, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- Well, I think we need to decide: is the focus of this template "maleness", or is the focus "the men's right's movement"? If the focus is the former, there are a variety of names one could think of. "Masculinity" could be good, sure. "Boys and men". "The human male". "Men in society". "Men's studies". If the focus is on MRM/MRA/anti-feminism stuff, the title should be changed to something like "The Men's Rights Movement" and then a) the template should be removed from any non-MRM page (like Man, etc.) and b) any links in the template that don't have to do with that movement directly should be removed. WanderingWanda (talk) 06:29, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- (I was being a bit dense last night, see my note above about how the nomination was malformed.) WanderingWanda (talk) 23:15, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- Oppose. I agree that "masculism" or "masculinism" as an ideology or movement is certainly much more obscure than is feminism. However, it does seem to be something that exists as a phenomenon, as evidenced by scholarship about it, so I certainly think it's a topic that Wikipedia should have an article on. And just because we have an article on the subject in no way implies that we are giving it equal weight to feminism. As far as the nav template, those exist for the sole purpose of aiding readers in easily navigating around a related set of articles. They have nothing whatsoever to do with creating any sort of false equivalence between different articles. This counter-proposal seems like a misapplication of WP:FRINGE and WP:FALSEBALANCE to me. Those policies are meant to regulate article content, not article existence or navigational templates. Whether or not an article should exist is based on WP:NOTABILITY, and this topic certainly seems to meet our policy threshold for notability. Rreagan007 (talk) 07:56, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
Additional discussion
Let me clarify my position a bit: these templates are, essentially, MRA (Men's Rights Activist) templates. That is maybe less obvious now than it was a little while ago: they used to have big, prominent links to the Men's Rights portal (with a logo and everything.) That link disappeared when that portal was deleted. In addition, one of the templates used to have this MRA logo, that's gone now too. However, if you look at the links in the templates, they are dominated with articles about the MRA movement. If the templates confined themselves to MRA articles that would maybe be fine. But instead these templates present themselves as essentially about The Male Gender as a whole. Its four most prominent links are to: Men – Boys – Fatherhood – Masculinity. And very prominent Masculism sidebars were, up until recently, present on all of those articles.
The MRA movement is not mainstream and absolutely does not represent the male gender as a whole. The templates have been justified by comparing them to Wikipedia's feminism templates. But feminism is far, far more mainstream than the MRA movement. Every university has a Women's Studies program that draws from feminist thought. What university has a Men's Rights department? Just look at the Men's Rights Movement article to see how fringy this movement is: the Southern Poverty Law Center categorized some men's rights groups as being part of a hate ideology under the umbrella of patriarchy and male supremacy
...The movement and sectors of the movement have been described as misogynistic
and notably anti-feminist
.
There are a variety of ways we could deal with these troublesome templates. One way is to keep the idea that the templates are essentially about The Male Gender as a whole. That would mean we'd have to toss out the templates' focus on MRA stuff. (That's what I'm proposing with this RM.) Alternatively, though, we could do the reverse: keep the MRA stuff, and toss out the idea that these templates represent men and boys on the whole. We need to do one or the other. (Or else just delete the things.) WanderingWanda (talk) 05:40, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- Equating masculinism with "Men's Rights Activist" is your first intellectual error (or intentionally misleading?) and I don't think a deep evaluation of the rest of your post is necessary because it all hinges on that fundamental disconnect. This RM is not the appropriate space to for you to rant at length about your personal viewpoints about this topic area (WP:NOTFORUM). This article and sidebar have been in use for years. You've been on Wikipedia for a few months - deeply involved in gender-based disputes. Please stop disrupting/WP:BLUDGEONING Wikipedia processes. -- Netoholic @ 16:05, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- The masculinism article itself strongly equates the movement with the men's rights movement. One subsection is called
Men's rights groups
. The subsectionTopic areas of interest
lists the "main article" asMen's rights movement
. WanderingWanda (talk) 18:34, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- The masculinism article itself strongly equates the movement with the men's rights movement. One subsection is called
I have no opinion on the name changes associated with this subject. However, I think it would be a good idea to have a general discussion regarding what is meant to be in this template and what function it serves. A change was made to the man article that removed the masculism template and added the feminism template. The talk page discussion is here [[1]]. Sorting out what these templates are for will hopefully enable more constructive edits in this area. Springee (talk) 20:34, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
I agree with Springee. This is not resolvable without a firm decision as to what these templates are for. If they're about the men's rights movement, then the title should be "Men's Rights Movement". If they're more broadly about masculinity, the title should be "Masculinity". As is, they appear to be trying to mix/conflate the two; any sidebar which tries to claim that Warren Farrell and Michael Kimmel are part of the same movement is just wrong: they are not only not part of the same movement, they are in fact directly opposed to each other, since Kimmel is a feminist ally and Farrell is an anti-feminist. LokiTheLiar (talk) 23:38, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- In retrospect, yeah, we need to have a broader conversation about the templates before we can have an RM discussion. Archiving my RM. WanderingWanda (talk) 23:47, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
- I'm agreeing as well. There is a confusion here between mascul[in]ism socio-political stuff (which overlaps but isn't always identical to men's rights material), on the one hand (or two hands one the same arm!), and general male-humans material on the other hand (on the other arm). I think I get the Most Mangled Metaphor Award for the day. Anyway, some more general scope discussion is clearly necessary. Where do we want to have that? — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 17:07, 17 May 2019 (UTC)
- I also agree (about the sidebar template; I am not expressing any opinion at this time on what the mainspace article should be titled). As someone said above, the template seems to exist in its current form / name as an effort to mirror the Feminism template. -sche (talk) 06:05, 18 May 2019 (UTC)
- I'm agreeing as well. There is a confusion here between mascul[in]ism socio-political stuff (which overlaps but isn't always identical to men's rights material), on the one hand (or two hands one the same arm!), and general male-humans material on the other hand (on the other arm). I think I get the Most Mangled Metaphor Award for the day. Anyway, some more general scope discussion is clearly necessary. Where do we want to have that? — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 17:07, 17 May 2019 (UTC)
- The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.
Scope changes
After a couple of days researching this topic more in-depth, I've found that there is a substantial difference between the terms masculism and masculinism, although some sources do conflate the two. I'm going to be performing some rewrites/splits and separate these topics into two articles as they really should be. Here is a short version key to the changes:
- masculism is the advocacy of the rights and interests of men or boys, and is considered the counterpart to feminism. Both views hold that men/women have been subjected to systemic, historical and modern discrimination and wish to see that discrimination end. The two ideologies are not as separate as currently presented - they just approach gender equality from different vantage points.
- masculinism is the promotion or appreciation of masculinity/manliness, and is the direct counterpart to femininism. Think Tim Taylor and Carol Brady. While I draft up this article, I'm probably going to temporarily redirect this one to masculinity rather than here after I look through the incoming links and ensure they are using the correct term.
The goal is to properly distinguish these two (really all four) terms. I think once that's done, the sidebars problem should be more resolvable. -- Netoholic @ 03:45, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- Please don't create a fork without consensus. We need multiple, high-quality, up-to-date sources saying the terms are used differently. As things stand, they seem to refer to the same ideas. Masculism is not the counterpart to feminism, because the essence of feminism is to oppose a patriarchal system in which women are subordinate. There is no counterpart to that for men. These recent efforts of yours to insist that for every female thing there must be a corresponding male thing are wrong-headed. SarahSV (talk) 05:36, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- Its not a fork, its a correction - these are distinct terms and the sources show it. The root of a lot of problems is that this article has conflated the terms for a long time. I'd say read the sources, which do overwhelmingly describe masculism and feminism as counterparts - and often not enemy ideologies. Masculists often also oppose patriarchal norms because of the long-time negative effect on men (like dying by the millions in wars). A great number of feminists welcome redress of masculist concerns as part of the same goal of equality.
Masculinism, on the other hand, which is a promotion of masculinity, is often under fire from feminists and is not the direct counterpart. -- Netoholic @ 05:49, 19 May 2019 (UTC)- The question arises to what extent you can show this distinction to go beyond an original research premise — as in representing consensus in mainstream academia. El_C 05:54, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- Its not a fork, its a correction - these are distinct terms and the sources show it. The root of a lot of problems is that this article has conflated the terms for a long time. I'd say read the sources, which do overwhelmingly describe masculism and feminism as counterparts - and often not enemy ideologies. Masculists often also oppose patriarchal norms because of the long-time negative effect on men (like dying by the millions in wars). A great number of feminists welcome redress of masculist concerns as part of the same goal of equality.
- Please don't create a fork without consensus. We need multiple, high-quality, up-to-date sources saying the terms are used differently. As things stand, they seem to refer to the same ideas. Masculism is not the counterpart to feminism, because the essence of feminism is to oppose a patriarchal system in which women are subordinate. There is no counterpart to that for men. These recent efforts of yours to insist that for every female thing there must be a corresponding male thing are wrong-headed. SarahSV (talk) 05:36, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- This does have an OR ring to it and/or perhaps inadvertent cherry-picking. Netoholic, can you post here a few of your highest-quality sources published in the last 10 years that argue as you have done above? SarahSV (talk) 06:13, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- I think the OR was done in the past, where masculism and masculinism citations were thrown together into this article as if they were direct synonyms - even I was fooled and made a move request above - before I did a deeper dive and realized the distinction. The main source for the definitions I used above is The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, which is massively-cited in its own right, and so is one of the most reliable sources available which specifically, clearly defines all four terms. Deeper reads of some of the sources I removed held WP:CIRCULAR references to this article and some didn't mention "masculism" at all. Those that used "masculinism", and not "masculism", were pretty clearly critical of masculinity itself, and didn't mention the areas of concern of masculists. So I think its clear in academia there is a distinction, but the terms are so close in spelling and rough meaning that less rigorous sources do conflate them - its even possible that the mishandling in this article for the last 13 years has exacerbated that effect. -- Netoholic @ 06:26, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- Sorry, but if you can't properly link, can you just quote directly? El_C 06:43, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- That source is from 24 years ago: Christensen, Ferrell (2005) [1995]. "Masculism". In Honderich, Ted (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. pp. 562–563. That entry isn't a good source, despite the publisher, and it mentions masculinism only once, as an aside.
- Can you post your other sources? We need up-to-date sources making the distinction you want to make. SarahSV (talk) 06:51, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- The source is the 2005 2nd edition, not 1995 - so 14 years and the book overall has 2500+ citations. The fact it mentions both masculism and masculinism is the point of the source... it gives a clear, distinct definition of both (or rather, all four if you include feminism/femininism). And remember WP:NOTTEMPORARY - so I don't know why you're artificially limiting this to 10 years. -- Netoholic @ 07:03, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- I can't see the relevance of 2,500 citations. It's an encyclopaedia, and your source is a 1,285-word entry, "masculism", which has four sources. The entry is by Ferrell or Ferrel Christensen, author of Pornography: The Other Side (as F. M. Christensen, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990) and "'Sexual Harassment' Must be Eliminated", Public Affairs Quarterly (1994), JSTOR 40435864. The title of the former probably speaks for itself. In the latter, he argues that sexual harassment is a "pseudo-concept", and it's downhill from there.
- The source is the 2005 2nd edition, not 1995 - so 14 years and the book overall has 2500+ citations. The fact it mentions both masculism and masculinism is the point of the source... it gives a clear, distinct definition of both (or rather, all four if you include feminism/femininism). And remember WP:NOTTEMPORARY - so I don't know why you're artificially limiting this to 10 years. -- Netoholic @ 07:03, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- Can you post your other sources? We need up-to-date sources making the distinction you want to make. SarahSV (talk) 06:51, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- There is no difference between the 1995 and 2005 entries on masculism, so the source is 24 years old. It begins: "Defining 'masculism' is made difficult by the fact that the term has been used by very few people, and by hardly any philosophers."
- Which other sources make the distinction you want to make? SarahSV (talk) 19:43, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- I'd agree that it is important to see what other sources support this distinction. I researched and edited this article many years ago, but at that time realized there was no clear, coherent definition of Masculism and no clear, consistent differentiation with regard to Masculinism or indeed to the Men's Rights Movement. Many of the definitions were contradictory, as shown in the current "definition and scope" section. Ferrel Christensen is an excellent academic source, but it is important to know that he is also the founder of "Movement for the Establishment of Real Gender Equality"[2][3] and has been critiqued for his opinions in this area by reliable sources [4]. His views need to be supported by other reliable sources before Wikipedia can suggest in an encyclopedic voice that his is the "official" definition and distinction.Slp1 (talk) 00:43, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
Sources which differentiate masculism from masculinism
- Christensen, Ferrell (2005) [1995]. "Masculism". In Honderich, Ted (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 562–563. ISBN 0-19-926479-1. LCCN 94-36914.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) (book overall has 2500+ citations) - Duerst-Lahti, Georgia (1997). Borrelli, MaryAnne; Martin, Janet M. (eds.). "Reconceiving Theories of Power: Consequences of Masculinism in the Executuve Branch". The Other Elites: Women, Politics, and Power in the Executive Branch. Lynne Rienner: 28. ISBN 1-55587-658-7. LCCN 96-43234. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
The exact concomitants for ideology derived from females and males would be femininism and masculinism, or feminism and masculism. One can readily imagine distinctions that should be made between these rubrics.
- Penelope, Julia (1986). "Language and the Transformation of Consciousness". Law and Inequality. 4 (22). University of Minnesota Libraries: 379+. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
Masculist, rather than masculinist, is the appropriate antonym of Feminist, for it refers to the cultural, rather than biological, differences between the sexes that rationalize the subordination of wemyn.
- Robinson, Douglas (1994). No Less a Man: Masculist Art in a Feminist Age. Bowling Green State University Popular Press. pp. 25–26. ISBN 0879726385. LCCN 93-72885. Retrieved 20 May 2019 – via Google Books.
... currently in use is "masculinism," a term of contempt used of patriarchal masculinity by some feminist; ... Masculism would be the positive counterpart to feminism: a movement dedicated to the liberation of men from patriarchal gender programming.
- Coston, Bethany M.; Kimmel, Michael (2013). "White Men as the New Victims: Reverse Discrimination Cases and the Men's Rights Movement" (pdf). Nevada Law Journal. 13 (2). University of Nevada, Las Vegas: William S. Boyd School of Law: 368–385. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
(pg. 371, note 17)
Keep in mind, this is just the sources that differentiate the sets of terms. A lot of sources use one or the other, may or many not explicitly define the terms, or may conflate the terms (possibly a result of Wikipedia conflating them for 13 years). Adding as I go. -- Netoholic @ 01:51, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- Netoholic, as I wrote above, the Christensen entry in Honderich is not a book with 2,500 citations. It's an entry in an encyclopaedia from 1995, and it cites four sources. Do you have any recent sources? SarahSV (talk) 01:57, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- Its ridiculous to think that if the book overall has 2500+ citations, that the entry within it doesn't benefit as part of that clearly reliable, and widely-referenced source. The book has at least one new edition (2005) which means if there were perceived any error in the Christensen entry, it would have been corrected in that 10 year span. The book even has its own Wikipedia entry for goodness sake - The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. It is impossible for you to downgrade its relevance. I'll also point out that you restored a 2009 source which references a term usage from 1914... so your concern over recentness seems inconsistent. -- Netoholic @ 02:04, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- Have you looked at that author's other work, or the evaluation of it by other sources? For example, he allegedly maintains that, quoting Walter DeKeseredy, "violence in intimate relationships is sexually symmetrical". [5] SarahSV (talk) 02:10, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- Are you really engaging on WP:OR muck-raking to try to besmirch an entry in an obviously reliable source? You know its not just the entry's author whose reputation contributes to its reliability, right? Consider the editor Ted Honderich and the Oxford University Press as well. Consider also the authors which have cited this book 2500 times. -- Netoholic @ 02:23, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- Quoting the Anna Deane Carlson Endowed Chair of Social Sciences at West Virginia University isn't "muck-raking". The point is that you seem confused. The solution is to keep producing sources to support your distinction. SarahSV (talk) 02:31, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- Unless she is writing a criticism of this source, its irrelevant and WP:OR. -- Netoholic @ 02:43, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- (edit conflict) Reliability depends on context. Critically evaluating sources (including the author) for reliability is neither muck-raking nor prohibited as original research. Quite the opposite, actually. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy has hundreds of contributors and who knows how many individual entries. To me it's ridiculous to assume that any proportion of the 2500+ citations necessarily reflect on the quality of a single entry without proof. I'm not saying the Christensen source is unusable, but there are apparent reasons to question its definitiveness. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 02:47, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- For one thing, Christensen's only description of masculinism is in a brief parenthetical aside; he doesn't expound on the difference between masculism and masculinism nearly as much as he compares masculism with feminism. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 05:01, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- And seems to contradict himself by writing that Davidson's "virism" is "an extreme brand of masculism and masculinism". [6] SarahSV (talk) 05:10, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Its not a contradiction - its possible for a particular view to be both masculism and masculinism - that doesn't mean masculism and masculinism are the same thing. Flipped around, something can be both feminist and femininist, if for example, it both promotes femininity -and- promotes women's rights issues. In fact, Christensen is confirming his prior definitions and showing they are separate, by not using just one of terms or the other. -- Netoholic @ 06:03, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- And seems to contradict himself by writing that Davidson's "virism" is "an extreme brand of masculism and masculinism". [6] SarahSV (talk) 05:10, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- For one thing, Christensen's only description of masculinism is in a brief parenthetical aside; he doesn't expound on the difference between masculism and masculinism nearly as much as he compares masculism with feminism. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 05:01, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Quoting the Anna Deane Carlson Endowed Chair of Social Sciences at West Virginia University isn't "muck-raking". The point is that you seem confused. The solution is to keep producing sources to support your distinction. SarahSV (talk) 02:31, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- Are you really engaging on WP:OR muck-raking to try to besmirch an entry in an obviously reliable source? You know its not just the entry's author whose reputation contributes to its reliability, right? Consider the editor Ted Honderich and the Oxford University Press as well. Consider also the authors which have cited this book 2500 times. -- Netoholic @ 02:23, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- Have you looked at that author's other work, or the evaluation of it by other sources? For example, he allegedly maintains that, quoting Walter DeKeseredy, "violence in intimate relationships is sexually symmetrical". [5] SarahSV (talk) 02:10, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- Its ridiculous to think that if the book overall has 2500+ citations, that the entry within it doesn't benefit as part of that clearly reliable, and widely-referenced source. The book has at least one new edition (2005) which means if there were perceived any error in the Christensen entry, it would have been corrected in that 10 year span. The book even has its own Wikipedia entry for goodness sake - The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. It is impossible for you to downgrade its relevance. I'll also point out that you restored a 2009 source which references a term usage from 1914... so your concern over recentness seems inconsistent. -- Netoholic @ 02:04, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
Sources which precisely define masculism as counterpart to feminism
- Christensen, Ferrell (2005) [1995]. "Masculism". In Honderich, Ted (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 562–563. ISBN 0-19-926479-1. LCCN 94-36914.
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(help) (book overall has 2500+ citations) - Young, Cathy (1999). Ceasefire!: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality. Free Press. pp. 230–236, 241–242. ISBN 0-684-83442-1. LCCN 96-49653.
[masculism] is already a small-scale mirror image of feminism
(note: cites Christensen as well) - Cathy Young (July 1994). "Man Troubles: Making Sense of the Men's Movement". Reason.
Masculism (mas'kye liz*'em), n. 1. the belief that equality between the sexes requires the recognition and redress of prejudice and discrimination against men as well as women. 2. the movement organized around this belief.
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(help) - Malmi, Pasi (6 February 2009). Discrimination against Men: Appearance and Causes in the Context of a Modern Welfare State (PDF) (Thesis). University of Lapland. ISBN 978-952-484-279-2. ISSN 0788-7604. LCCN 2009447401. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
- Penelope, Julia (1986). "Language and the Transformation of Consciousness". Law and Inequality. 4 (22). University of Minnesota Libraries: 379+. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
Masculist, rather than masculinist, is the appropriate antonym of Feminist, for it refers to the cultural, rather than biological, differences between the sexes that rationalize the subordination of wemyn.
- Robinson, Douglas (1994). No Less a Man: Masculist Art in a Feminist Age. Bowling Green State University Popular Press. pp. 25–26. ISBN 0879726385. LCCN 93-72885. Retrieved 20 May 2019 – via Google Books.
... currently in use is "masculinism," a term of contempt used of patriarchal masculinity by some feminist; ... Masculism would be the positive counterpart to feminism: a movement dedicated to the liberation of men from patriarchal gender programming.
- Davidson, Nicholas (1988). The Failure of Feminism. Prometheus Books. p. 274. ISBN 9780879754082.
To grasp the inherent inadequacy of feminism as a universal philosophy, it is helpful to consider its mirror image, a point of view that can be termed 'masculism', or with greater etymological precision, 'virism'.
- Coston, Bethany M.; Kimmel, Michael (2013). "White Men as the New Victims: Reverse Discrimination Cases and the Men's Rights Movement" (pdf). Nevada Law Journal. 13 (2). University of Nevada, Las Vegas: William S. Boyd School of Law: 368–385. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
(pg. 371, note 17)
Adding as I go. -- Netoholic @ 01:56, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- Cathy Young is a polemicist, not a social scientist or academic philosopher. Her views should be cited cautiously if at all, and should be explicitly attributed. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 03:06, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- The other trouble I see is that the better-quality sources among these mostly take a prescriptive approach to the term/topic (my bolding):
"Masculist, rather than masculinist, is the appropriate antonym of Feminist";
Thus we have a collection of opinions on how to define the term/topic, but not much factual description beyond it being a word that some people use ("the few who apply the term 'masculist' to themselves"). —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 00:17, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Let's not hold a different standard for one ideology than another. Certainly, feminist sources are often trying to prescribe the proper meaning of "feminism" as well. I would not expect any different. As these are ideologies, there is no objective definition. These are expert opinions, and specifically I have limited this selection to sources which themselves define these terms (for the purpose of building an encyclopedia entry). Other use these paired terms in common parlance without explicit definitions, though. Robinson points out in addition to the above quote that "
[masculism] is the precise morphological equivalent of feminism
" and certainly many authors use it as such, without prescribing their own definition or citing a dictionary. Its constructed the same, linguistically, and so is used as the counterpart. -- Netoholic @ 00:58, 21 May 2019 (UTC)- "Expert opinion" doesn't apply to what should be, which is really outside the scope of an encyclopedia. We can cite opinions as long as they're noteworthy, but defining a topic really requires a balanced overview of the facts. What "feminist sources" are you referring to, and how are they relevant to this discussion? There's plenty of information about feminism in scholarly sources, for instance:
Feminism is the system of ideas and political practices based on the principle that women are human beings equal to men. As a system of ideas, feminism includes several alternative discourses ...
— in George Ritzer & J. Michael Ryan, eds., The Concise Encyclopedia of SociologyA general definition might state that [feminism] is the belief that women, purely and simply because they are women, are treated inequitably within a society which is organised to prioritise male viewpoints and concerns.
— Gamble, Sarah, ed., The Routledge Companion to Feminism and PostfeminismI have suggested that the field of feminism attends to or includes ... a critique of misogyny/sexual hierarchy ... a focus on consideration of women as the subject of the analysis ... diverse perspectives, manifestly represented by certain forms of debate ...
— Chris Beasley, What is Feminism?: An Introduction to Feminist TheoryFeminism provides the most direct challenge to the gendered world, as well as to patriarchy, capitalism, and the sexist assumptions that women's differences from men render them inherently inferior.
— Lynne E. Ford, Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics
While these descriptions are all somewhat subjective, they all attempt to describe something that exists in reality. If there are equivalent sources describing masculism as a counterpart to feminism, I haven't seen them. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 03:33, 21 May 2019 (UTC)Women's demand for an end to patriarchy has been publicly articulated for hundreds of years ... There are many kinds of feminism, so it is more accurate to talk about feminisms and acknowledge the contested nature of the meaning of this term ...
— in Tony Fitzpatrick et al., eds., International Encyclopedia of Social Policy- LOL your quotes use terribly inconclusive terms compared to the ones you bolded in the quotes above, like "A general definition might state that [feminism] is...", "I have suggested that the field of feminism attends to...". "Feminism provides the most direct challenge to the gendered world..." is a rallying cry, not a definition. I'd say spend your energy on this article, because as it stands I've brought several sources, as I was asked to, and so am preparing to largely restore my prior edit with these additional sources and findings. I've shown several dimensions of proof that these are distinct terms which should no longer be conflated on this page. The only satisfying counter-evidence is the OED definition SarahSV added, but the preponderance is with my sources because they are experts in gender issues. I think you'll actually be very satisfied once these two terms are split and scoped... masculinism is going to be the more interesting article to design. -- Netoholic @ 05:54, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I strongly disagree. Your sources are "experts in gender issues" – what? The sources I quoted are describing an actual movement known as feminism, not saying how they think the word "feminism" should be defined based on its morphological qualities. (LOL.) —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 06:01, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I can find plenty of sources which define either masculism or masculinism by themselves. But again, I have to point out that these sources are specifically ones which use two terms and distinguish them. This is in furtherance of showing that these two terms should no longer be conflated in one article. After that, I'd be happy to cite all the sources which define masculism on the masculism article page, and the masculinism on the masculinism page. -- Netoholic @ 06:24, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I'm not convinced the existing sources are sufficient to distinguish them. We need sources that describe how the terms are actually used, not how authors think they should be used. Things seem to be much as Duerst-Lahti put it in 1997: "The contours of masculist thought, in contrast to masculinist thought, have not yet solidified". —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 06:43, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Most often, sources are just using masculist or masculinist as words that use English language rules and so have expected meanings. Take this source for example, Re-Thinking Men: Heroes, Villains and Victims. It doesn't state a particularly concise definition of "masculist", but the author clearly knows the term is the counterpart to "feminist" and trusts the reader to likewise know it. They also are covering "masculist" in the same meaning as Christensen - as a concern for men's rights - and not the masculinist sense. But it doesn't have a concise, clear, or conveniently quotable passage for the purposes of this section, so I haven't listed it above. -- Netoholic @ 07:52, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
[T]he author clearly knows the term is the counterpart to "feminist" and trusts the reader to likewise know it
– whether that's true or not, we can't build an encyclopedia article out of a bunch of assorted uses of the term any more than a bunch of sources saying how the term should be used: To support an article about a particular term or concept, we must cite what reliable secondary sources say about the term or concept, not just sources that use the term. And it's not our role to interpret the meaning of such usages either, per WP:NOR. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 08:41, 21 May 2019 (UTC)- I already said it couldn't be used for that. You said "
I'm not convinced
", so this example was more for your benefit, so you can an example of usage. Also, the suggestion that a word that is at least as old as the late 1800s is a "neologism" is kind of funny. Every source In the list above is "what reliable secondary sources say about the term or concept" - even if what they say when they mention the term is how it "should" be used. -- Netoholic @ 09:02, 21 May 2019 (UTC)- And I'm fine with using those sources; I just don't think they sufficiently show that two well-defined topics exist, or that either is a parallel concept to feminism. One can probably find a dozen sources that use just about any obscure term; I think it's more important to find sources that describe views on the topic from a disinterested viewpoint, as I mentioned earlier. The part of WP:NEO I quoted is just common sense in my opinion, and should really apply to any article. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 09:55, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I only see one source presented that seems to define the two topics as one (OED), and even that is debatable because their definition covers both meanings, separated by semicolons into clauses within the definition, but we still have two distinct topics - "Advocacy of the rights of men;" and "adherence to or promotion of opinions, values, etc., regarded as typical of men;" - and those meanings should be split into two articles because you can have one without the other being true. Each article is just titled using the term most often used for the topic - masculism in relation to men's rights and masculinism in the case of promotion of masculinity. Both articles should certainly cover the fact that the terms have been used unclearly, interchangeably, and conflated. Both articles would quote the OED overlapping definition. But also both articles would use sources which define the respective terms unto themselves and, per the sources in the other section, distinct from each other. -- Netoholic @ 19:01, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Once again,
you can have one without the other
may be true or not, but that's evidently your own original research; we should just go by what published sources state. Sources that equate the two terms/concepts were not hard to find; see § Sources equating masculism and masculinism, below. If you have truly tabulated all or most available sources based on which term they use for which topic, I for one would be interested to see the results. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 03:05, 22 May 2019 (UTC)- Its not an original idea out of my own head - its based on ALL these sources I've linked. I demand that you stop with that accusation. -- Netoholic @ 04:50, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
- Excuse me, but unless a published source directly states this view, it's original research. Articles may not contain any new analysis or synthesis of published material that serves to reach or imply a conclusion not clearly stated by the sources themselves. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 05:55, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
- Firstly, this is a talk page, and I'll not be inline citations for every single thing I type. Per WP:You don't need to cite that the sky is blue, if you take any two terms that are neither synonyms or antonyms, it goes without proof that either both, one, or neither of those terms could conceivably be used to describe a topic. For example, I don't need to cite a source which says its possible to describe something as "spotted" and "furry", or "furry", or neither. As shown in all the #sources which differentiate masculism from masculinism, they take steps to define the terms so as to inform the reader which of the terms are being used for the topic at hand (and clear up common misunderstandings between the similar-looking terms) and then use just one term - ie "you can have one without the other". This is why its not contradictory to see these two terms used together when discussing a topic like when Christensen says Davidson's "virism" is
"an extreme brand of masculism and masculinism"
. So it is possible for something to be both masculist -and- masculinist, one or the other, or neither. -- Netoholic @ 08:45, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
- Firstly, this is a talk page, and I'll not be inline citations for every single thing I type. Per WP:You don't need to cite that the sky is blue, if you take any two terms that are neither synonyms or antonyms, it goes without proof that either both, one, or neither of those terms could conceivably be used to describe a topic. For example, I don't need to cite a source which says its possible to describe something as "spotted" and "furry", or "furry", or neither. As shown in all the #sources which differentiate masculism from masculinism, they take steps to define the terms so as to inform the reader which of the terms are being used for the topic at hand (and clear up common misunderstandings between the similar-looking terms) and then use just one term - ie "you can have one without the other". This is why its not contradictory to see these two terms used together when discussing a topic like when Christensen says Davidson's "virism" is
- Excuse me, but unless a published source directly states this view, it's original research. Articles may not contain any new analysis or synthesis of published material that serves to reach or imply a conclusion not clearly stated by the sources themselves. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 05:55, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
- Its not an original idea out of my own head - its based on ALL these sources I've linked. I demand that you stop with that accusation. -- Netoholic @ 04:50, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
- Once again,
- I only see one source presented that seems to define the two topics as one (OED), and even that is debatable because their definition covers both meanings, separated by semicolons into clauses within the definition, but we still have two distinct topics - "Advocacy of the rights of men;" and "adherence to or promotion of opinions, values, etc., regarded as typical of men;" - and those meanings should be split into two articles because you can have one without the other being true. Each article is just titled using the term most often used for the topic - masculism in relation to men's rights and masculinism in the case of promotion of masculinity. Both articles should certainly cover the fact that the terms have been used unclearly, interchangeably, and conflated. Both articles would quote the OED overlapping definition. But also both articles would use sources which define the respective terms unto themselves and, per the sources in the other section, distinct from each other. -- Netoholic @ 19:01, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- And I'm fine with using those sources; I just don't think they sufficiently show that two well-defined topics exist, or that either is a parallel concept to feminism. One can probably find a dozen sources that use just about any obscure term; I think it's more important to find sources that describe views on the topic from a disinterested viewpoint, as I mentioned earlier. The part of WP:NEO I quoted is just common sense in my opinion, and should really apply to any article. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 09:55, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I already said it couldn't be used for that. You said "
- Most often, sources are just using masculist or masculinist as words that use English language rules and so have expected meanings. Take this source for example, Re-Thinking Men: Heroes, Villains and Victims. It doesn't state a particularly concise definition of "masculist", but the author clearly knows the term is the counterpart to "feminist" and trusts the reader to likewise know it. They also are covering "masculist" in the same meaning as Christensen - as a concern for men's rights - and not the masculinist sense. But it doesn't have a concise, clear, or conveniently quotable passage for the purposes of this section, so I haven't listed it above. -- Netoholic @ 07:52, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I'm not convinced the existing sources are sufficient to distinguish them. We need sources that describe how the terms are actually used, not how authors think they should be used. Things seem to be much as Duerst-Lahti put it in 1997: "The contours of masculist thought, in contrast to masculinist thought, have not yet solidified". —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 06:43, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I can find plenty of sources which define either masculism or masculinism by themselves. But again, I have to point out that these sources are specifically ones which use two terms and distinguish them. This is in furtherance of showing that these two terms should no longer be conflated in one article. After that, I'd be happy to cite all the sources which define masculism on the masculism article page, and the masculinism on the masculinism page. -- Netoholic @ 06:24, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I strongly disagree. Your sources are "experts in gender issues" – what? The sources I quoted are describing an actual movement known as feminism, not saying how they think the word "feminism" should be defined based on its morphological qualities. (LOL.) —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 06:01, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- LOL your quotes use terribly inconclusive terms compared to the ones you bolded in the quotes above, like "A general definition might state that [feminism] is...", "I have suggested that the field of feminism attends to...". "Feminism provides the most direct challenge to the gendered world..." is a rallying cry, not a definition. I'd say spend your energy on this article, because as it stands I've brought several sources, as I was asked to, and so am preparing to largely restore my prior edit with these additional sources and findings. I've shown several dimensions of proof that these are distinct terms which should no longer be conflated on this page. The only satisfying counter-evidence is the OED definition SarahSV added, but the preponderance is with my sources because they are experts in gender issues. I think you'll actually be very satisfied once these two terms are split and scoped... masculinism is going to be the more interesting article to design. -- Netoholic @ 05:54, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- "Expert opinion" doesn't apply to what should be, which is really outside the scope of an encyclopedia. We can cite opinions as long as they're noteworthy, but defining a topic really requires a balanced overview of the facts. What "feminist sources" are you referring to, and how are they relevant to this discussion? There's plenty of information about feminism in scholarly sources, for instance:
- Let's not hold a different standard for one ideology than another. Certainly, feminist sources are often trying to prescribe the proper meaning of "feminism" as well. I would not expect any different. As these are ideologies, there is no objective definition. These are expert opinions, and specifically I have limited this selection to sources which themselves define these terms (for the purpose of building an encyclopedia entry). Other use these paired terms in common parlance without explicit definitions, though. Robinson points out in addition to the above quote that "
There exist countless published sources for the sky being blue. I don't see how this situation compares. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 10:19, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
Blais / Dupuis-Déri source
- Blais, Melissa; Dupuis-Déri, Francis (2012). "Masculinism and the Antifeminist Countermovement". Social Movement Studies. 11 (1): 21–39. doi:10.1080/14742837.2012.640532.
{{cite journal}}
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(help)
It should be pointed out that our definition of masculinist or masculinism is based on the French usage of these terms (for a history of the terms in French and English, see Dupuis-De´ri, 2009). In English, they generally designate either a way of thinking whose referent is the masculine or simply a patriarchal ideology (Watson, 1996), rather than a component of the antifeminist social movement. In English, ‘men’s movement’ is the most common term, though some, like Warren Farrell, use ‘masculist’ or the more restrictive ‘fathers’ rights movement’. Some French-speaking feminists (Langevin, 2009) refuse to use the terms ‘masculinist’ or ‘masculinism’, claiming that to do so might give the impression that this type of antifeminism is as important and legitimate as its feminist counterparts. It is our view, however, that confusing antifeminism and masculinism makes it difficult to grasp the particularities of masculinism. We believe that masculinism is one of several constituents of antifeminism, including religious, conservative, nationalist, and other currents. Finally, there is a growing consensus in the French-language media and among French-speaking feminist activists and specialists in women’s studies, in favour of naming the movement masculiniste.
Here is the full paper. This source should not be used to equate the terms masculism/masculist with masculinism/masculinist because, as you can see from the full quote, their usage is based on the French, and specifically say that the English usage has a different context. There is an additional problem, and to see it, you have to going down a bit of a rabbit hole.
They cite their own work Dupuis-Deri (2009) titled Le « masculinisme » : une histoire politique du mot (en anglais et en français) which is a French-language paper that discusses various term usages in French and English (there is no direct English translation of that paper that I've been able to find). On page 102, in the section of that which distinguishes English "masculism" from "masculinism", they cite Duerst-Lahti (2008) Gender Ideology : Masculinism and Feminalism. In that, on p. 169, Duerst-Lahti gives a definition of "masculism". The only problem: it specifically cites this Wikipedia article as of 2007.
In short, this entire chain is rooted on a WP:CIRCULAR reference. It can't be used to draw an equivalence between masculism and masculinism. -- Netoholic @ 04:49, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- All that means is that the sources don't necessarily show an equivalence between masculinism and masculinism in English, but there's still the French usage that can be discussed. And looking at the above quote, I see a bunch of discussion that seems to equate the terms that isn't cited to Dupuis-Déri (2009), but to other works on English usage.
Looking at the 2008 chapter "Gender ideology: masculinism and feminalism", Duerst-Lahti cites Wikipedia to say masculism is associated with Warren Farrell and initially "promoted gender egalitarianism and the promise of mutual benefit" (p. 169). But Duerst-Lahti also says the term was "common to the early days of second wave feminism", which I don't see in any late-2007 version of this article. It's not great that the author doesn't cite a source for this, but I don't think we can assume from this that the entire chain of sources is invalid.
The fact that the 2009 paper is in French (and no one here appears to have read it) also suggests there may be additional sources for this info. If we were citing the 2008 chapter itself, I'd agree there might be a problem of circular sourcing. But I think we can assume that the later authors checked the material they were citing and found it valid. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 01:38, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I think Duerst-Lahti (2008) and by extension both Dupuis-Déri (2009, 2012) sources are too tainted by the WP:CIRCULAR problem to use in this article. They might be fine for masculinism as a separate topic. I was actually hoping to use Duerst-Lahti, as it both confirms that masculism and feminism are counterparts AND that masculism and masculinism are not direct synonyms. Table 8.1 on page 168 is nice for visualizing. -- Netoholic @ 01:52, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be saying (1) you haven't read the 2009 paper, and (2) you think it uses too much circular sourcing. Is that right? —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 03:23, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- You're wrong. Duerst-Lahti (2008) has a CIRCULAR reference problem in the portion discussing masculism. Dupuis-Déri (2009) cites Duerst-Lahti (2008) alone to describe English use of "masculism" and becomes tainted by the CIRCULAR. Dupuis-Déri (2012) cites Dupuis-Déri (2009) for term definitions they use throughout the rest of the paper - tainting it with the same CIRCULAR when they equate masculinist (French and English meanings) with Warren Farrell's self-description as a "masculist". This makes it inappropriate to state in this article that "
In 2012 sociologists Melissa Blais and Francis Dupuis-Déri equated masculist and masculinist, attributing the former to Warren Farrell.
as its currently presented. -- Netoholic @ 05:37, 21 May 2019 (UTC)- I think any "tainting" is exaggerated. Omitting the part about Farrell, the above quote still includes the statement
In English, they generally designate either a way of thinking whose referent is the masculine or simply a patriarchal ideology (Watson, 1996)
(emphasis added). Blais and Dupuis-Déri again seem to be describing both masculism and masculinism together, citing a source by Watson. Looking at that source would seem to be the best way to clear this up. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 06:53, 21 May 2019 (UTC)- I checked that. Watson 1996 is here. She only uses masculinism throughout - not masculism/masculist. -- Netoholic @ 07:32, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I think any "tainting" is exaggerated. Omitting the part about Farrell, the above quote still includes the statement
- You're wrong. Duerst-Lahti (2008) has a CIRCULAR reference problem in the portion discussing masculism. Dupuis-Déri (2009) cites Duerst-Lahti (2008) alone to describe English use of "masculism" and becomes tainted by the CIRCULAR. Dupuis-Déri (2012) cites Dupuis-Déri (2009) for term definitions they use throughout the rest of the paper - tainting it with the same CIRCULAR when they equate masculinist (French and English meanings) with Warren Farrell's self-description as a "masculist". This makes it inappropriate to state in this article that "
- Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be saying (1) you haven't read the 2009 paper, and (2) you think it uses too much circular sourcing. Is that right? —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 03:23, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I think Duerst-Lahti (2008) and by extension both Dupuis-Déri (2009, 2012) sources are too tainted by the WP:CIRCULAR problem to use in this article. They might be fine for masculinism as a separate topic. I was actually hoping to use Duerst-Lahti, as it both confirms that masculism and feminism are counterparts AND that masculism and masculinism are not direct synonyms. Table 8.1 on page 168 is nice for visualizing. -- Netoholic @ 01:52, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
Sources equating masculism and masculinism
Here are a few sources from just the first page of a Google Scholar search:
Masculinism, or masculism, is a countermovement to feminism that has functioned in Western countries since the 1980s. Masculinists identify themselves primarily as men, and as activists promoting the rights of men and fathers.
— Ulla Hakala, "Masculinism", in The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies
The terms "masculinist," "masculist," "masculinism," and "masculism" are used interchangeably across disciplines, some giving "masculinist" preference as the first of these terms and the most common.
— Susan Whitlow, "Gender and Cultural Studies", in The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory
The critical terms we might expect to use in the study of masculinity in performance are freighted with contradictory meaning: both 'masculism' and 'masculinist' sometimes refer to reactionary anti-feminism, and to critical formations of gender equity.
— Alan Filewood, "Review of Men at Play by Jonathan Bollen, Adrian Kiernander and Bruce Parr"
See also Coston and Kimmel, cited above, who say, Mythopoets were largely gender separatists, neither feminist nor anti-feminist in their politics; rather, they said, they were "masculinists"—of men, by men, and for men
, citing Young (1994), who uses the terms masculism and masculist throughout, but not masculinist. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 02:28, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
- Re: Hakala "Masculism" - if you have the full source not just the abstract please link it. I see in the citations for that work a reference to the #Blais / Dupuis-Déri source, so its quite likely this is another WP:CIRCULAR problem. -- Netoholic @ 04:44, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
- Re: Whitlow "Gender and Cultural Studies" - request full source as well. Or at least a list of citations used. In this discussion, I've been quite diligent to respond with sources and provide clear, easy links that anyone can have access to. If you are trying to make arguments based on abstracts, or brief snippets that show up in Google Scholar searches, but haven't seen the entire full source yourself, then I find that manipulative of the discussion. -- Netoholic @ 04:48, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
- Re: Filewood "Review of Men at Play by Jonathan Bollen, Adrian Kiernander and Bruce Parr" - that text is inconclusive. Its a great source to show there is lexicological confusion between the terms sometimes - but it doesn't give a definition or say they are synonyms. -- Netoholic @ 04:44, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
- Re: Coston/Kimmel - At no point do they equate the terms. In the note, they cite definitions of both terms to explain the choice of term they are using. This shows they are aware of the similar terminology, and are providing definitions to prevent confusing readers.
"masculinists"—of men, by men, and for men
is pretty clearly in line with Christensen's definition for masculinism - and since they are not talking about men's rights issues, clearly they are not talking of the masculist meaning. -- Netoholic @ 04:44, 22 May 2019 (UTC)- It's possible to verify source contents via a full-source request at Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange. Feel free to avail yourself if you have doubts.
Coston and Kimmel cite Young's essay on "masculism" to discuss a "masculinist" movement – that suggests that the terms are not as distinct as one might think. "Masculism" only appears in the citation to Young, and Coston and Kimmel are quite vague as to which term they are referring to when they comment on usage.
Per Filewood,
both 'masculism' and 'masculinist' sometimes refer to
the same topics – that means they are used interchangeably, i.e. synonymously. Several sources also refer to the men's rights sphere as specifically masculinist, for example:Men's groups that believe [women and men are fundamentally different and should have different roles and rights] are called masculinist ... among the most conservative men's groups are men's rights activists ...
— Julia T. Wood, Gendered LivesA few short minutes spent touring the cyber-world of men's-rights Web pages will unveil ... a truly remarkable gallery of anti-feminist content. The intrepid virtual adventurer who boldly goes into these unabashedly mascul(in)ist spaces is quickly rewarded with a torrent of diatribes, invectives, atrocity tales ...
— Robert Menzies, "Virtual Backlash", in Reaction and Resistance: Feminism, Law, and Social Change
So the distinction doesn't look so clear-cut there either. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 10:08, 22 May 2019 (UTC)Other examples of men’s rights' online presence include those groups, deemed "masculinist" in nature, vying for men’s equitable treatment in arenas such as child custody for fathers and the promotion of men’s health.
— Rachel Schmitz & Emily Kazyak, "Masculinities in Cyberspace" (citing Michael Kimmel, "Men's Responses to Feminism at the Turn of the Century")- Both "spotted" and "furry" are sometimes used to refer to the same topics - that does not mean they have the same meaning. Unless the source explicitly defines the terms as synonyms, you cannot assume that the author thinks they are. Some furry cats are spotted, that doesn't mean the terms are synonyms. Some masculist (men's rights) points of view are masculinist, that doesn't mean the terms are synonyms. -- Netoholic @ 18:49, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
- It's possible to verify source contents via a full-source request at Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange. Feel free to avail yourself if you have doubts.
Lead
I think the previous lead, before Netoholic's recent edit, should be restored. It was in place from March 2016 until his edit on 19 May, which bases the lead on what may be a tiny-minority view. The previous lead said:
Masculism or masculinism may variously refer to advocacy of the rights or needs of men and boys; and the adherence to or promotion of attributes (opinions, values, attitudes, habits) regarded as typical of men and boys.[1][2][3]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
BunninYu2008
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).- ^ Christensen, Ferrell (1995). "Masculism". In Honderich, Ted (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford University Press. pp. 528–529. ISBN 978-0-19-866132-0.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help)- ^ Cathy Young (July 1994). "Man Troubles: Making Sense of the Men's Movement". Reason.
Masculism (mas'kye liz*'em), n. 1. the belief that equality between the sexes requires the recognition and redress of prejudice and discrimination against men as well as women. 2. the movement organized around this belief. References Warren Farrell, Jack Kammer, and others activists in the men's movement.{{cite news}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help)
It isn't ideal, but it's better than the current one. Any thoughts? SarahSV (talk) 21:36, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- Having skimmed the above scope discussion, I agree; we shouldn't give Christensen's views undue weight by presenting them as definitive in the very first paragraph of the article. I've restored the previous lead section wording. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 22:55, 19 May 2019 (UTC)
- Sangdeboeuf, thanks for doing that. I've restored and expanded the text about Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who apparently coined the term masculism in 1914. That was removed in 2017, I think inadvertently while reverting vandalism. Her use of it shows clearly that masculism and masculinism refer to the same set of ideas. SarahSV (talk) 00:12, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- Just a note that MOS:FIRST says:
Keep the first sentence focused on the subject by avoiding constructions like "[Subject] refers to..." or "...is a word for..." – the article is about the subject, not a term for the subject. For articles that are actually about terms, italicize the term to indicate the use–mention distinction.
WanderingWanda (talk) 00:30, 20 May 2019 (UTC)- Good point; however, given that the sources tend to approach masculism as a term requiring a definition, I think that's a sign that the topic is not very well defined to begin with. I don't know whether that indicates the need for better sources, changing the article to be about the term, or just deleting the whole thing as an exercise in improper synthesis. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 00:42, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- I completely agree that Netoholic's version gave too much emphasis to Christensen's definitions. As I mentioned above, my experience when researching this topic a few years ago was that there was no coherent definition for Masculism or Masculinism. Different people use the term in very different ways. I am rather sorry about this, as it might be helpful to have a consistent term for those, like Ferrel Christensen for example,[7] who apparently don't subscribe to the anti-feminist agenda of the MRM, but support feminism as well as drawing specific attention to men's concerns and problems. But the fact is that this is not how the term is consistently defined, and WP is not in the business of redefining words. I am really not sure what is the best thing to do about anarticle without a clear definition. Slp1 (talk) 01:02, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- It seems like the focus might need to be on the word itself, then. WanderingWanda (talk) 01:26, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
- Slp1, based on the source in this article and the other two sources I listed above, Christensen seems to be promoting a tiny-minority view ("progressive masculism"), and perhaps a very limited definition of feminism that he's willing to support. It's difficult to be sure, because it's not at all clear what he's saying. SarahSV (talk) 01:27, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
I'm continuing to progress on adding the sources I've found to the lead. Just as feminism and femininism are separate topics, so too are masculism and masculinism. There are sources that make the distinction, although its naturally the case that not a lot of sources cover all four terms in a compact, concise way as Christensen does. His definitions are well-cited, and there are others (Young and Duerst-Lahti 1997 which I'm about to add). This case is a lot like trying to find a sources that clearly differentiate between a meter (a measuring instrument) vs. meter/metre (a metric distance unit). The topics are connected slightly, especially etymologically, and they can sometimes be unclear or conflates in certain contexts, but they are distinct subjects - and finding sources that contrast them to clear up confusion is harder than finding sources for one or the other. Wikipedia has made a big error for 13 years conflating these topics, and so a little patience and open-mindedness would go a long way to fixing that mistake so we stop perpetuating it. -- Netoholic @ 01:31, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
Alright, I haven't done much reading into this, but here's my nutshell understanding of masculism/masculinism. You folks can tell me if I'm correct: 1. The terms were coined in response to feminism (feminism being a broad, hugely influential social movement which has brought us the woman's right to vote, etc), but 2. definitions for "masculism"/"masculinism" are kind of fuzzy and contradictory, and 3. there is no broad "masculist movement" that is comparable to the feminist movement. In fact there's no real male counterpart to feminism at all. Or if there is, it's called The Patriarchy. WanderingWanda (talk) 01:49, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I really don't like to talk of "movements" exactly because they are so vague. But there are certainly some people and organizations which fall under "masculist" as being pro-men's rights but not anti-feminist (or may even be pro-feminist) - mostly they are about resolving a different set of rights than feminists are, and see resolution of men's concerns as a necessary step toward gender equality. Feminists tend to see them as having the wrong priorities. Most masculinist people and organizations are pro-masculinity and pro-femininity (for example, traditional qualities or perhaps even the dreaded Patriarchy) but don't necessarily define themselves using that term. I'd say, most of the world is "masculinist/femininist" just as a traditionalist default that hasn't cared much about modern feminism since women's suffrage. A lot of the reason for the fuzzy definitions is a good deal of literature using these terms is from the modern feminist perspective, which can be critical of masculists for focusing on rights issues that are not a priority for feminists, and critical of masculinists for encouraging gender roles that they think preserve the status quo. There is a subtle distinction, for sure, but a clear understanding of the terms makes it easier to understand feminist critiques. The "men's movement" is made of people/orgs which may be masculist, masculinist, neither, or both. Some are masculist without being masculinist, and vice versa. This is why we've done a grave disservice for 13 years conflating the terms. -- Netoholic @ 02:28, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Now who's doing original research? Could we have some citations for the above, or is this becoming a general discussion forum? —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 03:18, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I'm the only one that's been adding sources to this discussion at all. -- Netoholic @ 05:40, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Pardon me, but I don't see the connection between what you just wrote above and any of the sources we've been discussing. Could you be more exact? —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 05:54, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- At this point your request seems like you just want to bog me down. In the sections above, I've quoted sources which define masculism against feminism and masculism against masculinism. For each of those, I've probably accessed at least 5 times as many sources, that use one term or the other. From the contexts given in those sources is what I based my summary above on. Its not original research - its my short summary of findings after looking at reliable sources. -- Netoholic @ 06:32, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- You've cited sources that define how they think the terms should be used, not how they are used in practice or relate to any groups, movements, or theories (apart from a couple very minor asides). And I don't see any sources here that say
most of the world is "masculinist/femininist"
or thata good deal of literature using these terms is from the modern feminist perspective
. Everything I've seen about feminism suggests that there is no single "modern feminist" perspective. Why don't you post some of your other sources here, so others can help evaluate their reliability? —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 07:19, 21 May 2019 (UTC)- Your reply right here made statements without sources - is
Everything I've seen about feminism suggests that there is no single "modern feminist" perspective
original research as you've claimed about me? lol. It doesn't matter if the authors are saying how something "should" be used... that's what many authors do. Certainly there are feminist authors that go to great lengths to tell people what feminism "should" be about. If its their opinion, we can attribute. Doesn't mean its unusable. The preponderance of reliable sources associate the term "masculist" with concern for men's rights, and "masculinist" with promotion of masculinity. Two distinct meanings that overlap in certain subject areas... but both deserving of separate treatments. "Masculinism" is in fact the more expansive subject, and all this discussion is not moving us toward starting that separate article. -- Netoholic @ 18:58, 22 May 2019 (UTC)- Again, pardon me, but I assumed we were all aware of multiple Feminist movements and ideologies. Or you might want to have a look at any of the sources on feminism I already linked above, which discuss some of the various schools of feminism.[8][9][10] There still isn't sufficient justification for an article split, in my opinion. The stuff about "feminist authors" being prescriptivist is just irrelevant. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 00:47, 23 May 2019 (UTC)
- Your reply right here made statements without sources - is
- You've cited sources that define how they think the terms should be used, not how they are used in practice or relate to any groups, movements, or theories (apart from a couple very minor asides). And I don't see any sources here that say
- At this point your request seems like you just want to bog me down. In the sections above, I've quoted sources which define masculism against feminism and masculism against masculinism. For each of those, I've probably accessed at least 5 times as many sources, that use one term or the other. From the contexts given in those sources is what I based my summary above on. Its not original research - its my short summary of findings after looking at reliable sources. -- Netoholic @ 06:32, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Pardon me, but I don't see the connection between what you just wrote above and any of the sources we've been discussing. Could you be more exact? —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 05:54, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- I'm the only one that's been adding sources to this discussion at all. -- Netoholic @ 05:40, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
- Now who's doing original research? Could we have some citations for the above, or is this becoming a general discussion forum? —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 03:18, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
Revert
Netoholic, what was the reason for this revert? SarahSV (talk) 23:36, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
- @SlimVirgin: have you been following this discussion page? There is a preponderance of evidence pointing out that there is a definitional difference between masculism and masculinism (just as there is between feminism and femininism). Your edits are further conflating these terms which have been incorrectly conflated on this article for at least 13 years, and that conflation has been repeated in some recent scholarship leading to WP:CIRCULAR and WP:CITOGENESIS. -- Netoholic @ 00:16, 23 May 2019 (UTC)
- Most sources say the terms are used interchangeably. But my question was why you reverted the South Africa copy edit. SarahSV (talk) 00:40, 23 May 2019 (UTC)
- Some sources think they are used interchangeably exactly because Wikipedia and OED conflate the terms (WP:CIRCULAR). There is exactly one source, the OED, which claims they are direct synonyms, but even in the definition they give they cite "Advocacy of the rights of men;" and "adherence to or promotion of opinions, values, etc., regarded as typical of men" as separate clauses. Citing dictionaries directly is often problematic. Wikipedia's articles are meant to be about topics not words. So even if the OED gives a single word definition that combines two distinct topics, that does not mean we combine them in one article. There are masculist groups and people which are allies to feminism. There are masculist groups which are supportive of femininity. By continuing to do so, you are misrepresenting those movements, misrepresenting the sources above, and continuing the damage Wikipedia has done to these words for all this time. -- Netoholic @ 01:08, 23 May 2019 (UTC)
- Most sources say the terms are used interchangeably. But my question was why you reverted the South Africa copy edit. SarahSV (talk) 00:40, 23 May 2019 (UTC)