Male feminist allies are precious and necessary. Sure, women could carry the torch alone, but as many, including the United Nation’s HeForShe movement argue, the sooner men get on board, the faster we’ll get to real equality.
However, there is still plenty of misunderstanding and denial in the world about what feminism means, what kind of issues women face in society, and how to be a man who truly supports women. In the midst of all that crosstalk, many self-proclaimed male feminists—both well-intentioned and not—can find themselves saying all the wrong things when it comes to women.
The trending Twitter hashtag #ThingsFeminstMenHaveSaidToMe collects the most shocking of both innocent gaffes and misogynist jibes. They’re all pretty funny—or at least, they would be if they weren’t so terribly infuriating.
As this actual male ally writes:
Hopefully, reading these ridiculous tweets can teach reasonable men how not to speak about feminism when they’re talking to women—or to anyone, really: