MenUnderFire: Environmentalist Suren Abreu talks about why he considers himself a woman

A common assumption people make when they see my Facebook profile is that I am woman. My profile picture, displayed here, is a symbol of woman power. It is not a problem for I call myself woman more often than I call myself a man, since I find the word more inclusive. Gendered distinctions, after all, are a sociological and linguistic creation.

My upbringing was beautifully egalitarian, bordering on the feminist. That made it easier for me to become a committed feminist years ago. As a member of a feminist collective, Satyashodhak, and of an environmentalist-feminist-socialist rights group the Green Madcaps that orientation was strengthened.

When I introduce myself as feminist, I get stares and even laughs. “How can you be feminist? You’re not a woman,” is a common refrain, and it is enjoyable to see the confusion when I say, “But I am a woman.” I do not always explain, unless the person genuinely searches for meaning, unfortunately, that feminism is akin to men-hating.

The real strength of being feminist lies in the liberation from the shackles of patriarchy. While the liberation is painful, pitted against the dominant structures of the world, it is exhilarating when achieved. Patriarchy, after all, is so geared towards the dehumanisation of the person—female, male, or trans—that it skews the natural balance of society on the trivial basis of sex, inventing an entire gendered worldview to validate the imbalance.

Consequently, all suffer; women and trans more, but men as well.

The belief that men are more powerful, more in control, more ordained for leadership than women (the trans being left out as unworthy of consideration) placed huge expectations on the shoulders of men down the millennia who ruthlessly and thoughtlessly oppressed women, while suffering the emotional depravity and isolationism that came with that power.

Men developed differently from women sociologically because of this, forming two distinct subspecies from a once integrated species. We do not need a history or sociology lesson to see this: the evidence is everywhere.

Sadly, women who ‘break the glass ceiling’, to use a tired cliché, are co-opted into a patriarchal structure because that is the dominant structure. They do not necessarily symbolise a triumph of feminism except in their going beyond what had been considered normative by a patriarchal society.

The substantially lowered ability of men in general to identify with softer emotions, tenderness, spontaneous joy, tears, and uncontrollable giggles is a diminishing of their humanity and a denigration of these emotions. For too long has the male of the species been forced to be ‘the man’, ‘the head’, ‘the ‘alpha-male’—ridiculous terms that place one over the other, and shame those who do not fit in. It is time to be beta (better) and shed the shackles of patriarchy, moving towards a humanity that is egalitarian, collaborative, and considerate.

A world that is non-patriarchal will be different from what we know. Power structures would be radically different—family, politics, corporate, economic. Shared power, respect for different opinions, eco-friendly development will be the pillars of that world. I dream...