In a recent interview with The EchoRoom, the 48-year-old actor argued that while feminism once served as a crucial tool for addressing female oppression and inequality, today’s iteration of the movement has lost its grounding and evolved into what he views as a distorted ideology.
According to Iyke, modern feminism didn’t just organically evolve; it was strategically marketed. He claimed that a well-known women’s magazine (which he declined to name) initiated the campaign as a sales tactic, targeting women who felt sidelined in a male-dominated society.
“I call it a crime, an assault of sorts,” Iyke said.
“The perpetrators of this… obviously, I would not name the magazine… came out with a brilliant campaign to push more papers. Who were their chief readers? Women. So they devised an ideology that allowed women to challenge the status quo and compete with men in the same space.”
While acknowledging that early feminist movements sought to address real issues like patriarchy, gender imbalance, and emotional neglect, Iyke claimed that subsequent generations misunderstood the intent and weaponised the message.
He suggested that the campaign eventually mutated into a mindset that encourages women to reject men entirely:
“This was a campaign that went overboard, and certain women bought into the ideology and made it their own,” he explained.
“They decided that this whole ideology of ‘we do not need a man, anything a man can do we can do better’… escalated, and blew it out of proportion. Now it has been adopted as a way of living, as a new cultural standard.”
The actor also spoke about what he called the “double standards” within modern feminism, saying it promotes a two-faced approach to gender dynamics.
Rather than striving for natural balance, Iyke believes the movement encourages unnecessary competition between the sexes.
“The double standard of it all is what makes me question the ideology in the first place,” he said. “Do you not understand the fallacy, the falsehood of it? The two-faced approach to it? You can only be in your natural God-given [role], and the men stay [in theirs], so that when you come together, it blends and becomes one. That is what they are yet to understand.”
Iyke’s comments have sparked debate, with critics accusing him of misunderstanding feminism’s evolving scope, while supporters say he’s raising valid questions about how far the movement has shifted from its original mission.
Regardless of where one stands, one thing is clear: Jim Iyke’s take on feminism is bound to keep the conversation going.
