He argues that antifeminists consider the "traditional gender division of labor as natural and inevitable, perhaps also divinely sanctioned." Viewpoints Īntifeminist ideology rejects at least one of the following general principles of feminism: He says that antifeminists oppose "women's entry into the public sphere, the re-organization of the private sphere, women's control of their bodies, and women's rights generally." Kimmel further writes that antifeminist argumentation relies on "religious and cultural norms" while proponents of antifeminism advance their cause as a means of "'saving' masculinity from pollution and invasion". Men's studies scholar Michael Kimmel defines antifeminism as "the opposition to women's equality". Some women, like those in the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League, campaigned against women's suffrage. The meaning of antifeminism has varied across time and cultures, and antifeminism attracts both men and women. Other feminists label writers such as Christina Hoff Sommers, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Katie Roiphe and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese with this term because of their positions regarding oppression and lines of thought within feminism. The term antifeminist is also used to describe public female figures, some of whom (such as Naomi Wolf, Camille Paglia, and Kate Roiphe) define themselves as feminists, based on their opposition to some or all elements of feminist movements.
Canadian sociologists Melissa Blais and Francis Dupuis-Déri write that antifeminist thought has primarily taken the form of masculinism, in which "men are in crisis because of the feminization of society".