I don’t tend to buy into the can-do-no-wrong attitude surrounding Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, but I can’t argue with the superstar’s most recent feminist move.

Penning three paragraphs titled “Gender Equality is a Myth!” for the recently released Shriver Report, Knowles-Carter uses her star power responsibly by calling attention to a delicate point — male participation is critical for the success of feminist goals.

The Shriver Report in partnership with the Center for American Progress released “A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back From the Brink,” an extensive journalistic investigation into financial insecurity among American women and its effect on families and institutions.

Citing payroll disparities to prove that gender equality does not yet exist in the U.S., the celebrity demands, “Unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers and sisters earn more — commensurate with their qualifications and not their gender.”

Although the overall report addresses concerning statistics about the lopsided percentage of American women struggling in minimum wage jobs, I don’t think it’s necessarily bad that Knowles-Carter’s brief essay seems to be overshadowing the book-length investigation in terms of attention online and through social media.

Her point is independently important.

Attracting men to feminist circles becomes particularly sensitive in a society where the term “feminist” carries a negative connotation and where notable women have denied being feminist on grounds of as shaky as their not-hatred for men or their lack of anger about the issue. In fact, only 16 percent of men and 23 percent of women identified as feminist in the Huffington Post’s and YouGov’s April 2013 poll of 1,000 adults.

But equal percentages of men and women comprised the 82 percent of respondents who claimed to believe that “men and women should be social, political and economic equals” — otherwise known as the definition of feminism.

So if root beliefs aren’t where the problem lies, why aren’t more men championing the feminist cause?

Feminism’s mistaken characteristic of hatred toward men and its perceived goal of women dominating — rather than reaching — men on social, political and economic levels is an excuse. But it’s not a good one.

Neither is the belief that feminist goals align strictly with women’s issues. In reality, the political, social and economic equality between males and females can benefit both genders.

It’s more than time to put aside inaccurate stereotypes and negative connotations surrounding feminism and start moving toward gender equality as a united front. This starts with an end to sensationalizing individual feminists’ radical or anti-male views and recognizing feminism as an effort for gender equality.

If gender equality is not a divisive issue, then feminism should not be either.

Feminism needs men in the same way that feminism needs women — as advocates of equality and agents of change. Gender equality cannot be accomplished with the participation of just the female half of the population, as Knowles-Carter notably points out.

“We have to teach our boys the rules of equality and respect, so that as they grow up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life,” she writes. “And we have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible.”

Gender equality is feminism — and it’s not just a women’s struggle.

Nicki Gorny is a junior magazine journalism and Spanish double major. She can be reached at nagorny@syr.edu.

Published on January 21, 2014 at 2:15 am