(Sparked by - https://jseeleysite.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/why-is-feminism-such-a-hated-term-in-the-united-states/)
Banners are very much double edged things.
By creating a flag to fly and a group identity you create an 'us'. An us is a very powerful thing. An 'us' gets us through hardship and pain. An us grants us community, comfort, and support. But every time you also define an 'us' you define a 'them' - the group of people who are not us, because they are different in some way from the group that is 'us'. In the article above the 'us' is feminists or MRM and the 'them' is the opposite sex. I am glad that a thing called feminism exists to combat some of the inherent problems with a long history of a misogyny and bigotry that has been built into the existing institutions that are decades old. ...I'm less thrilled about some of the hatred towards ALL men because SOME men or A man did something heinous. My own (birth)father being one of those men.
There are plenty of banners though. It doesn't have to be gendered. Religions of all sorts are another excellent example of a banner that flies. Sports teams are also banners that we fly. Within my chosen sport (bel) units and realms create them and us too. The only real way you get rid of them and us thinking is by making sure that any divide which splits 'us' and 'them' also includes 'them' in a larger group of 'us'. People from different units might not get along, but in the end we're all belegrim and that seems to largely keep the peace, especially out here in the west.
So I think that as long as all feminists and MRM folk are also humanists it's all well and good. People need to just not lose sight of the larger 'us' they're a part of to stop themselves from getting so bent out of shape... and sometimes that just requires perspective. For that group you can probably get a cluster of 'us' out of 'people seeking social justice' but when you get down to it, for every disagreement we have amongst ourselves we're all still human. That's the biggest 'us' we've got but because it's such a large 'us' it's no wonder it's hard to keep track of. The smaller the group the tighter the knit, the larger the group the looser it is.
In the end... we've all just got to find our place, we've got to find our 'us' that makes us feel safe and happy. Found some of my group but still working on it myself. How about you?
