Can men be feminists?

Different factions of the abolitionist community are arguing about this question (here and here), which surprises me.  You'd think the answer was obvious: of course men can be feminists. In fact, you'd think advocates for animals would reach that conclusion especially quickly, and in unison.

Background: I like to use the word "animalist" as a term for animal advocates who challenge traditional

Was I once an egg?

Short recap of the Marquis argument I was responding to in my last post: Marquis says killing one of us is wrong because it takes away a FLO (future like ours). But abortion takes a FLO from a fetus.  So abortion is wrong too.

Here's a response to Marquis I find intriguing/bewildering.  Eugene Mills says if I was once a zygote, I was also once an egg.  I wasn't also once a sperm. No, I was just

Is it wrong to take the future from a fetus?

Don Marquis's argument against abortion (in "Why Abortion is Immoral") is pleasingly simple.  He says the wrongness of killing one of us (folks like you and me who are obvious members of the "moral community") is due to the fact that killing deprives an individual of their entire future, a valuable "Future Like Ours" (FLO) in most cases.  But abortion deprives a fetus of a FLO as well.  So

How to argue against gay marriage (part III)

And now for the rebuttal.  In the last post I said that if I had to make an argument against gay marriage--in a debate club setting, or some such--then perhaps I'd say this:

There's a great deal of value in knowing both of your biological
parents and being raised by them (other things being equal--of course
there are exceptions).
The normal way of procreating for same sex couples involves a

How to argue against gay marriage (part II)

This is certainly a diabolical exercise. I am for marriage equality, and I think most reasonable people are for marriage equality. But what if a college debate society were staging a debate, and you got assigned the "against" side?  What could you say?  Most of the stuff normally said on that side is extremely silly.  Is there anything even half-way reasonable to say against gay marriage?  In

How to argue against same sex marriage (part I)

In my contemporary moral problems class this semester we've been discussing same sex marriage.  We paid close attention to the Supreme Court oral arguments on Prop. 8 and DOMA last week.  We've been reading articles "pro" and "con"...and, honestly, it seems to me that all the best arguments are "pro".  I'm definitely in favor of legalizing gay marriage.  That said, lately I keep wondering: what