Men, generally speaking, care very little about feminism. Some are outright opposed, saying that women are exaggerating, or that the grievances and inequalities they claim are no longer justified in an egalitarian and democratic society, or that it's all just a charade to look good or to collect subsidies by playing the victim. Others try to understand it beyond International Women's Day and attempt to bring some sense to a set of demands that, in my opinion, make perfect sense, especially when we see the statistics on domestic and sexual violence, or the glaring economic inequalities. However, it's difficult for a man to feel directly involved in these demands. It's as if the women around us were a foreign country with its own wars, miseries, and injustices, which we can understand, but we're not expected to do more than sympathize from afar and not show ourselves to be too supportive—or complicit—with the oppressors. Even among younger generations, this issue seems to have a bad reputation, as if it were a settled debate, or as if women don't need any help or support, or as if feminism itself creates the problem by highlighting a set of inequalities that should already be invisible. There are also some women who feel more comfortable thinking of the battle as already won, or as unnecessary or awkwardly framed. Or who find the traditionally domestic role of women liberating and wonderful, a promised land lost. However, even if we were to approach the solution from a left-wing perspective, it's often unclear what kind of policies could be implemented.
Feminism raises awareness and, therefore, acts like a thermometer, revealing a disease we'd rather not have. But it exists, and it's shameful that, despite women making up half the population, there's neither more awareness nor debate, nor more collective pressure. I'm the first to admit I'm unaware of the privilege and inequality in treatment and awareness.
But I often think that if women were as beastly, fanatical, and stubborn as men, they would have already won. It's like what Kurt Vonnegut said: good will triumph over evil when angels organize themselves like the mafia. But if there aren't more 'problems,' it's because, as in the case of Catalan, it must be exhausting to always be angry and climbing the walls. It must be draining to spend the day raging and powerless, seeing that everything remains the same, or that progress is minimal, and always disputed by the same people who are perfectly happy maintaining inequality. But it's from an awareness of inequality—as a Catalan speaker, for example—that you can understand what only cynicism or privilege can deny. They say that feminism also liberates men, but I don't know if they've just realized they have more to lose than to gain, or that everything, as always, is just politics, or has nothing to do with happiness or love.
