Radical Feminism is like Radical Masculinism: “Petronella Wyatt” as an Example

Recently, websites have been buzzing with the article by British feminist Petronella Wyatt, titled: “I am Single, Childless, and Lonely.” Petronella Wyatt wrote: “Feminism has let me down and has let down my generation.”
It was a fiery article in the Daily Mail where Petronella Wyatt denounced feminism and acknowledged its grave danger to humanity.
The article touched two types of people:

1. First Type: Women living in the West who have experienced extreme feminism that is hostile to men, warns against them, and seeks to change the true nature of women by making them not only competitors but fierce fighters against men. The writer mentioned the influence of books by Gloria Steinem and Simone de Beauvoir. One could also mention many influential feminist books, such as “We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which has been said to be a must-read for every woman.
2. Second Type: Advocates of masculinity in our country, who are always searching for any extreme feminist example to prove that masculinity is the right solution, viewing women merely as followers of men who must obey them, with their dignity and opinion erased, believing that men have the right to hit and rape them within their legal and religious rights, without allowing women any right to express their opinions.

Contrasting Real-Life Cases:
Just as Petronella listed real-life cases of fifty-year-old single and gloomy women, I can mention some cases I know in the land of extreme masculinity:
My beautiful cousin with wheatish skin was married off with a small dowry because she wasn’t white, and out of fear of spinsterhood, in a society that views white as beautiful and darker as not. She felt inferior from the early stages of marriage. She couldn’t complete her middle school; she got married in the ninth grade before the certificate exam. Society implicitly conditioned her to stay at home rather than pursue education. Eleven years later, her husband married another young and white girl under any pretext! Claiming she could only bear girls. He left her in a small house with severe financial distress, struggling to raise her daughters. She allowed him to give her night to the younger and prettier co-wife, as she couldn’t afford the luxury of beautifying herself with six daughters needing daily, non-stop work. My cousin hasn’t reached middle age yet, but she will surely reach it with a life filled with psychological diseases she won’t have the luxury to treat or even discover.
My neighbor, who is forty-six years old, has come back to her parents’ home 46 times in her life because her husband beat her. Her family would then invite her husband, apologize to him, reconcile the couple, and send her back as if nothing happened, even in front of her now-grown children. She gets beaten and insulted during any severe outburst. Once, when she returned to her family’s refugee house, they said: “It’s just a few slaps, no fractures or dislocations, no need to make a fuss, just some bruising of the skin.”

Extremism is the Root Problem:
Newton’s third law of motion in classical mechanics states that forces always occur in pairs, where every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This is true in physical sciences as well as social sciences. Extreme masculinity will be met with extreme feminism, and both are evil. Extremism in all forms and places is a significant wrong that must be eliminated because it will produce an extreme reaction. The Syrian regime’s use of security solutions against its people was the primary cause of opposing extremist movements. The extreme sectarianism created by the Syrian regime through the Alawitization of the state contributed to the emergence of counter-extremism calling for the Sunnification of the entire country. Extremism, in any form, is not beneficial. Returning to the social situation, it is necessary to say that fighting extremism in both masculinity and feminism is essential. We can accept moderate masculinity, which sees women as human beings to be valued, protected, and cared for. We can accept moderate feminism, which sees the need for love and respect in the relationship between men and women, building a rational family, and respecting the role of women in life.
I was impressed by a Spanish writer’s comment on Petronella Wyatt’s article, translated into Arabic: “I understand what she is saying, but I also want to highlight that at the time of writing this article, one Australian woman is killed by her male partner every 4 days. This is not demonizing men, but there must be balance. Yes, we want to be loved, but not at the expense of our safety. Clearly, excluding men or thinking all men are the same is not the solution, but her experience must be considered in the context of many other factors. Being anti-men is not the solution, but being anti-women or anti-feminism is not either. The author still does not suggest how we can engage in loving relationships in a safe and healthy way.”

The Third Solution:
Studies and facts show that both masculinity and feminism are parallel lines that do not meet. These lines benefit from each other; masculinity benefits from extreme feminism to increase its popularity, and feminism benefits from masculinity to strengthen its narrative. If they continue to dominate public thinking, we face widespread societal corruption.
Masculinity erases women’s existence and destroys their structure, thereby destroying the family and its values. It strips women of their role in educating and teaching their children. In Idlib province, more than 70% of women teach their children and help them with their studies due to their lack of educational capabilities. This leaves children, especially in the early educational stages, vulnerable to educational delays. Masculinity also creates a shallow, dismissive, and offensive view of active women in their communities. How many times have we heard casual conversations accusing successful women in academic or political life of selling their honor to achieve success! Even university students are not spared from superficial descriptions accusing them of prostitution and promiscuity just because they are studying at university!
Conversely, feminism destroys the correct relationship between men and women, making women enemies of men, seeking to fight and eliminate them, competing in all life fields, and working to do away with men entirely. Women may engage in unlimited sexual relationships but do not allow men to marry them, so they own them. Women may even buy men’s sperm with their money to bear a child without the father’s care, living in a single-parent home devoid of the father’s role and presence.
The real solution is to merge masculine and feminist thought, reaching a third balanced solution. The solution is for masculinity and feminism to marry, producing a balanced moderation that builds the relationship between men and women on humanity, love, respect, rational contracts, and laws. A cooperative, not combative, relationship. Therefore, in the Syrian Future Movement’s Family Affairs Office, we recommend the following:

1. Completely rejecting both extreme masculinity and feminism and not allowing any side to triumph over the other’s faults.
2. Benefiting from the positives of masculinity and feminism and avoiding their negatives.
3. Conducting balanced scientific courses that reject both extreme masculinity and feminism.
4. Empowering women’s roles in public life.
5. Protecting families from disintegration in the face of extreme masculinity and feminism calls.

Finally, in the Syrian Future Movement, we work to combat extremism in general and specifically in both masculinity and feminism, putting our offices in Syria at the service of any suggestions that help promote moderation and combat extremism.

Wheeba Al-Masri
Family Affairs Office
Articles
Syrian Future Movement (SFM)

Original Article Link:
Daily Mail Article