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Hey Dudes, You Owe RBG Your Freedoms, Too

Photo credit: Bill Clark - Getty Images
Photo credit: Bill Clark - Getty Images

From Cosmopolitan

After I heard the news about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, one of the world's most effective feminist trailblazers, tears streamed down my face. Then I started receiving texts from male friends telling me they'll be remembering everything she did for women. But the sentiment didn’t fill me with comfort—it filled me with anger. While I appreciate the intention, kind words are not going to restore democracy and help protect the decades of progress Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought to cement.

But more importantly, RBG didn't just fight for women's rights. She fought for everyone's rights. She didn't just include men in her endeavors. She actively sought to defend and protect them from the same gender caste system that trapped women. She showed men just how much they had to lose, too.

Consider the 1975 landmark gender discrimination case, Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, in which she helped a male widower earn access to his wife's social security benefits, reversing a law that gave women access to their husband’s benefits but not the other way around. The assumption was that women always made less than their male partners. RBG didn’t just want to prove that women shouldn’t be trapped by this outdated notion of their "dependent" status—she also wanted to liberate men from the expectation of being the sole provider.

Her ambitious approach to feminism was unique because it never bought into the fallacy of the so-called "gender wars," where men must lose in order for women to win. Her judicial strategy was a fierce defense of true equality—she was committed to unveiling just how sweet it would be for all genders to be free.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought for men to be free from discrimination so vehemently that in 1976, she defended a frat boy’s God-given right to drink beer. (No, but actually.) The case was Craig v. Boren and the plaintiff was a fraternity brother incensed he couldn’t purchase beer because an administrative statute in Oklahoma allowed his local liquor store to sell beer to women before they were 21, but not to men, on the basis that women were the more responsible drinkers. While RBG pithily acknowledged the case was "a non-weighty interest pressed by thirsty boys," she still argued strenuously on their behalf. And by the way, she won.

She firmly believed that "gender-based discrimination hurts everyone," and rebelled against other forms of oppressions, like the ones experienced by the LGBTQ+ community and people people with disabilities. She stood up for the expansion of voting rights, the rights of the undocumented, and everyone’s right to breathe unpolluted clean air. She even tried to protect and preserve our fragile democracy in Bush v. Gore, when she objected to the termination of the Florida recount which effectively let Republicans steal the election.

So my message to men is simple: Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn’t just advocate for women. She fought fiercely for you, too. So given everything she contested and resisted for you, what I'd like to know is this: what will you do for her?

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