"Let's put one lie to rest for all time: the lie that men are oppressed, too, by sexism-the lie that there can be such a thing as men's liberation groups"
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Morgan’s line is a barricade, not a bridge: it’s designed to shut down a rhetorical maneuver that was gaining traction in the early 1970s, when second-wave feminism was forcing American culture to name patriarchy and some men responded by rebranding discomfort as oppression. The phrasing “put one lie to rest for all time” isn’t just conviction; it’s preemptive strike. She’s refusing debate on the premise itself, treating “men are oppressed by sexism too” as a category error rather than a complicated claim.
The intent is political triage. Movements can’t afford to spend their limited oxygen litigating every counterframe, and “men’s liberation” threatened to siphon attention, resources, and moral urgency away from women’s concrete subordination in law, work, violence, and reproduction. The subtext is wary and tactical: if sexism is a system built to advantage men as a class, then men’s pain under that system doesn’t equal structural oppression. It’s real, but it’s collateral, not the target.
Context matters: Morgan, a key feminist organizer and writer, was speaking from within a moment when “equal rights” rhetoric was colliding with backlash and with a media ecosystem eager to platform “both sides” even when the sides weren’t symmetrical. The line’s bluntness is the point. It draws a bright boundary around the movement’s analytic core: patriarchy can injure men, but calling that injury “oppression” risks laundering power into victimhood and turning liberation politics into a contest over who gets to claim the word.
The intent is political triage. Movements can’t afford to spend their limited oxygen litigating every counterframe, and “men’s liberation” threatened to siphon attention, resources, and moral urgency away from women’s concrete subordination in law, work, violence, and reproduction. The subtext is wary and tactical: if sexism is a system built to advantage men as a class, then men’s pain under that system doesn’t equal structural oppression. It’s real, but it’s collateral, not the target.
Context matters: Morgan, a key feminist organizer and writer, was speaking from within a moment when “equal rights” rhetoric was colliding with backlash and with a media ecosystem eager to platform “both sides” even when the sides weren’t symmetrical. The line’s bluntness is the point. It draws a bright boundary around the movement’s analytic core: patriarchy can injure men, but calling that injury “oppression” risks laundering power into victimhood and turning liberation politics into a contest over who gets to claim the word.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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