In Defense of Men

Ballet Company by Karin Jurick

All men are evil. This is a phrase I have heard countless times, by women both my own age and older. To preface, I myself am a young woman. I have a father and three brothers, and I do not think all men are evil. I do think that all people are sinful, and in that sense evil, but I do not think that the male half of our species is inherently worse than the female, and that is the belief I am discussing today. 

In fifth grade, I had a friend campaigning for equal rights for people of all genders. To my limited moral and political knowledge, this seemed a fair cause, so I joined her in constructing a website to promote her thoughts. My very conservative grandmother witnessed me in my website-building flowstate and I was promptly grounded, as apparently feminism was a bad thing. It took me a long time to understand what she was afraid of. 

The American feminist movement began as a reasonable cause: securing women's suffrage. To be clear, I like having the right to vote, and I am looking forward to employing that right when I am old enough. Expanding female access to the voting booths, education, and the workforce all seem good and fair things to me. It is the expansion and continuation of the feminist movement, however, that leads to some controversy. 

For one, the sexual revolution championed by feminist activists contributed to the development and legalization of birth control, IVF, and abortion, all of which I feel either hesitant about or opposed to for moral reasons. Likewise, what started out as women seeking equality with men has developed into what is now, in its more radical parts, a "man-hater movement." 

There is a prevalent idea in the American zeitgeist that men, particularly white men, are the bane of all evil and are the sole cause behind every issue and problem. Racism? Men's fault. Sexism? Men's fault. Slight wage gap? Men's fault. Disrupted economy? Men's fault. Inflation, a struggling dating culture, increased crime rates, school shootings, and every other issue get blamed on the men. 

The question is whether or not this blame is valid. If men are, as many modern women accuse them of being, entirely malicious, evil, unintelligent, cruel, selfish, and uncaring, then it is reasonable to blame them for the world's problems, so long as women are pure, selfless, kind, compassionate, and gentle. I do not think, however, that either of these characterizations is entirely honest. 

There are men in this world who are "evil." There are men who are serial killers, and there are men who are rapists. Most men, however, have good intentions. Most men are awkward, but genuine. Most men are insecure, but trying their best to put up a front. Most men do not intend to harm other people. Most men are not the monsters they are made out to be, but simply people learning their place in the world as much as anyone else. 

For that matter, most women are not perfect angels. Most women are good, but they also gossip, slander, lust, and covet, without admitting to the majority of it. People are people. People are imperfect, both men and women. It is entirely unfair to inflate the flaws of one half of our species for no reason other than former oppression and anger. 

Particularly for the Christian woman, to hate men is a concerning reflection of the spiritual state. Jesus Himself was a man. You cannot accuse all men of being terrible, yet make an exception for the Son of Man. Likewise, Scripture makes it very clear that both men and women are at fault for sin, and that both should love one another in Christ. To hate men is to hate your brother in Christ, and if you hate the church while claiming to be a part of it, I pray that you will be convicted and reconciled. 

I do not think it is fair to say that all men are evil or that they are more evil than women. All we like sheep have gone astray, and we are all sinful, but that does not give us the right to hate half of the country, nor does it give us the right to claim moral superiority. Instead, we should acknowledge that women are just as flawed as men. The more we put all men in a bandwagon, the more we dismiss men who commit truly heinous acts. We should stop hating every XY chromosome, and instead seek to love our neighbor and seek justice when evil does occur, regardless of who started it.