In a new essay for Cosmopolitan, actor Matt McGorry (Orange Is The New Black, How To Get Away With Murder) discusses his journey to becoming a feminist. Titled “How Becoming A Feminist Felt Like Falling In Love,” McGorry explains his interest in feminism all started with Emma Watson’s U.N. address, which motivated him to check out what the term actually means:
From there McGorry grew to be a pretty vocal activist. And although his article doesn’t take it too seriously (he wonders whether his initial shift towards feminism was just a half-digested chicken burrito and not Watson’s speech), McGorry does open up about his fear that weighing in on hotbutton issues would ostracize him, either from those who disagreed with his stance or from other feminists who saw him as opportunistic. But he ultimately decided he “didn’t fucking care.”
So McGorry began speaking out on his various social media platforms in a tone that, much like his essay, is occasionally serious but more often than not funny:
And since McGorry is a dude, his essay focuses on the many ways in which feminism aims to help men too. He writes:
I’ve never been told not to cry. My parents never told me to “man up”; if anything, they taught me that expressing vulnerability is braver than putting on a stoic front—the alternative response so highly prized by male culture. I was taught that my insecurities, my fears, and my hurt were best shared with the people around me, rather than locked away in a box built of faux toughness. Unfortunately, I don’t know that most men were taught these same beliefs. And this is part of the flip side of feminism and gender equality that benefits men as well as women: The notion of men being “strong” and therefore unable to admit to having “weaker” emotions is incredibly damaging. I hurt for all the boys and men who stuff away their feelings because they believe that this is the way to be a man.
Read the full essay over on Cosmopolitan and watch him discuss the issue with Mic: