Feminism Must Include Empathy for Working-Class Men
Elite feminism at times substitutes a culture of contempt for a culture of care. If we are truly devoted to gender equality, we must ditch the assumption that all men enjoy similar privilege.
Eileen G’Sell is a poet and critic with recent contributions to the Baffler, Current Affairs, Hyperallergic, and the Hopkins Review, among other publications. She is a 2023 winner of the Rabkin Foundation Prize in arts journalism and teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.
Elite feminism at times substitutes a culture of contempt for a culture of care. If we are truly devoted to gender equality, we must ditch the assumption that all men enjoy similar privilege.
The rich used to eat, dress, and even speak entirely differently from the masses. Today they wear T-shirts and sneakers just like the rest of us. But that doesn’t mean we’re all equal. It only lays bare the real source of inequality: actual money.