A few people in my mentions acting like I'm saying men shouldn't contribute to discussions of feminism. As anyone who knows me knows, that's not my point.

In fairness to those who misunderstood, 'lol' wasn't a very specific way of expressing my point so here's a little thread. https://twitter.com/jichikawa/status/1287507368901660672

First: the idea that feminism discriminates against men is just not a respectable academic topic. Don't frame your books around dumb questions that any intro student in the field would find obvious.

"Are animals made of cells? A debate"
"Does demand increase price? A debate"

This is especially so when, as here, the questions themselves are harmful. A question implies a space of answers and legitimates positions.

Books OUP shouldn't publish:

"Is it OK to be gay? A debate"
"Was slavery good actually? A debate"
"Was the Holocaust THAT bad? A debate"

No book entitled "Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men? A Debate" should be published by a respectable academic press in this day and age.

(This book was published by OUP in 2008.)

The second problem does have to do with the fact that both/all participants in this "debate" about feminism are men.

The problem is not that men shouldn't talk or even argue about feminism. (Look at my twitter feed!) But they shouldn't be centred.

I know plenty of men who have useful and interesting things to say about feminism. I hope/think that I am one of them! But none of those I know, I'd hope and guess, would agree to a platform like this that excluded women feminists. I certainly wouldn't.

But my biggest problem is with the publisher, not the authors. Someone decided that a book on this topic, with this framing, with all male authors, was a good idea. That was a quite bad decision in 2008, and a laughably bad one in retrospect now.

Which, again, is why 'lol' and a few circles was enough to get my point across to many, though not all, in my original tweet.

Sheesh, that was a boring thread. Sorry to those to whom this is obvious