The concept of feminism, nowadays, is fairly well understood. Although there can be some core misunderstandings, most people are familiar with the movement, the reasoning, and how it effects our culture as Americans. A less known concept, however, is “meninism”.

Meninism is a parody of a parody—quite literally. It sprouted rather innocently from a joke, a satire of some of the arguments of Men’s Rights Activists (or, in shorthand, MRAs). However, recently a few twitter accounts picked up the buzzword and used it for an entirely different purpose. Meninist twitters primarily consist of sexist jokes, poorly internalized misogyny, and critiques of both radical feminism and feminism that isn’t intersectional. Albeit, the latter point isn’t particularly bad or wrong, but the approach to these critiques is either disturbingly vulgar, or has a misogynist flare.

I can admit feminism isn’t perfect. Most feminism in western culture and portrayed by media only focuses on white cisgendered women. White cisgendered women living in America generally don’t face the level of adversary that a transsexual woman of color might, so focusing on their struggles exclusively is hardly effective or inclusive. Some feminists harbor misandry, which also does little to promote equality. In the same way, poorly disguised misogyny endowed the name “meninism” does nothing to promote equality, or “protect men’s rights”.

Meninism holds a sweet bit of irony to it. Every so often, a self-proclaimed meninist might argue that feminism ignores men’s rights, that men face their own oppression, and that men are forced into certain gender roles. The fact of the matter is that feminism does care for men’s rights. Forcing men into hyper masculine gender roles is actually due to the same internalized misogyny that affects women. How male rape victims, and how male victims of domestic violence are trivialized by society are topics of issue for legitimate feminists, just like female victims. Feminism is about equality. The prefix “fem” is a misnomer, and arguably, the movement would be more affective if called “equalism”. Then, maybe we would be saved from silly scrimmages between men’s rights and woman’s rights—with, again, fight for the same things. Equalism would make radicalism seem more abstract, and would push away the stereotypes associated with the majority of feminists. But, for now, we’ll have to push that idea aside, and focus on what’s established. Through education, patience, and a considerable amount of understanding, meninist ideals will disappear as obsolete or a sign of immaturity.

So, when I recently saw a student don a t-shirt with a meninist logo, rather than being offended, I only felt sympathetic.