The men’s rights movement is a reactionary, desperate attempt to hold onto social and political power.
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Last week, a pair of articles on the popular website Thought Catalog dealing with “female privilege” went viral. In the articles – the original listicle written by Mark Saunders, titled 18 Things Females Seem Not To Understand (Because, Female Privilege) and a follow up by Gordon Avery called “Female Privilege Is Real, And We Need To Talk About It (Like Adults)” – the authors aired their counter-feminist grievances, which fall roughly in line with the tenets of the MRA (Men’s Rights Activist) movement.
Saunders’ piece detailed several “privileges” enjoyed exclusively by women; women aren’t “creepy” when they ask a man out; Women don’t have to deal with the humiliation of people being scared of them when alone on a dark street; being forced to support a child they didn’t want to have; women can cry their way out of a speeding ticket; having the arrogance to believe sexism only applies to women.
With all due respect to the author – all of that is bullshit.
Those arguments just aren’t grounded in reality.
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Starting from the first point, which actively seeks to promote the idea that a man who is avoided on a dark street is damaged in the same way (or worse) than an actual victim of a sexual assault, Saunders completely throws the mountains of evidence – qualitative, quantitative, historical, and otherwise – out of the window in order to prove that his oppression is somehow equal to that of the opposite gender. Not only that, but he pulls anecdotes out of his ass that he can’t prove in any shape or form to be true, such as the insinuation that women are never told to “suck it up”, or that a man being “caring and empathetic” is shocking to anyone in 2014. Those arguments just aren’t grounded in reality.
His manifesto ends with the argument that “female privilege only applies to women”. Essentially, reverse sexism. the brother of the equally audacious “reverse racism” argument. Somewhere, a “Native privilege” subreddit is being born, in which I assume proponents will try to convince all of us that informing and educating white people about the real genocide that happened on American soil is just as bad as the genocide itself.
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What the advocates of these no-evidence arguments don’t realize is that these ideas – racism, sexism, ableism, and so on and so forth – are grounded in power. The power that has allowed only a fraction of women (when compared to men) to hold positions of power in government and business. The same power that championed slavery and segregation, and police brutality and the school to prison pipeline. The same power that completely ignored, and to some extent continues to ignore, the plight of the physically and mentally handicapped.
Furthermore, they have a warped idea of what the kind of privilege they enjoy even means. Saunders and Avery talk about privilege in the way a teacher gives “privileges” to good students. They don’t look at privilege through the larger lens of society, in which straight white men (such as myself) have had a distinct advantage over our peers since the founding of the United States and most Western countries. And it’s not like the concept of something like female privilege, or African American privilege, can never happen – it just never, ever has. When women get away with the sexual harassment of their male employees, make a vast amount more than men, control most positions of power in business and government, we can start talking about female privilege. When the African American governors of Southern states begin segregating schools again in order to put more effort into students of the same race, when the African American bankers start denying loans to white people based on their race – then, we can we start talking about African American privilege.
When the MRA movement first started gaining major ground online a few years ago, it struck me as very similar, albeit vastly more organized, to those who held the warped view that, essentially, any real recognition of the African American community was inherently racist. You know – the people who wanted a “White” history month. A “White” entertainment television. A National Association for the Advancement of White People. The people who ignored that much of the American history we’re taught in school was written about white men by white men, that most of the shows on major television networks were written about white people by white people, and that the NAAWP is also known as the media, business interests, and government of the United States of America.
What the advocates of these no-evidence arguments don’t realize is that these ideas – racism, sexism, ableism, and so on and so forth – are grounded in power.
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Mens’ rights activists have followed an extremely similar track. They take an issue that has directly affected females in a negative way for hundreds of years, and they flip the narrative so that it looks as though now men are the oppressed, and women are the oppressors. Women lose trust in men after the sexual assaults of themselves, their friends, and family members, but that pales in comparison to the fact that a guy felt bad once. Women are sexually assaulted when they’re drunk and tend to shy away from reporting it due to the constant legal battles, the character assassinations levied on them by defense attorneys, and inherent distrust and victim blaming by law enforcement and their community, but they’re the privileged ones because their reputation isn’t ruined for acting in an abhorrent, scumbag manner. Women are underrepresented in positions of power, but hey, at least they aren’t burdened with the responsibility of making decisions that affect everyone.
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There’s a way to talk about issues concerning men that aren’t covered enough in the media, such as (shameless plug) Cameron Conaway’s article back in February, The Disposability of Boys. And for all of the posturing in his article, even Avery hits on an extremely important point – the fact that there are almost as many single homeless men as there are single women and families with children combined. But neither of these things are due to any kind of “female privilege”; they’re a direct result of, in Conaway’s case, a patriarchal power structure that produces the same results for boys as they do women and girls (exploitation to meet the desires and needs of the “father”), and in Avery’s example, a political and social unwillingness to confront the problem of poverty and homelessness in America head-on. It’s absolutely disingenuous to imply that either of those things are a result of women having too much power over men.
The fatal flaw of the men’s rights activist movement is not that the members are “neckbeards”, “virgins”, or anything else. It’s that the whole movement is s a desperate, reactionary attempt to hold onto complete control of social and political power. And even more than that; it’s not based in reality, and has to create problems to fix. And just like those championing the “plight” of white people, it has and will continue to fall into intellectual obscurity, because it is patently absurd.
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Why was my post responded to by the above?
Courage, this is confusing because I would think that the “spam filter” would apply to everything you write?
And BTW, I don’t think AVFM could use GMP because I’m sure they have the name trade marked.
The problem I have is for example the above post shows up now but I have experienced situations where it shows up and is later removed. To me this means that it passed the filter but a human reads it and removes it. I suppose some one could say that there is no relevance in what I said, to the topic at hand but I would disagree. There are a few of us who run against the grain, a few of us “men” who don’t conform and accordingly, the removal of some responses, reflect that the diversity of men is… Read more »
Resulting in a conversation only a select few are having.
The fatal flaw of the men’s rights activist movement is not that the members are “neckbeards”, “virgins”, or anything else. It’s that the whole movement is s a desperate, reactionary attempt to hold onto complete control of social and political power. And even more than that; it’s not based in reality, and has to create problems to fix. And just like those championing the “plight” of white people, it has and will continue to fall into intellectual obscurity, because it is patently absurd. So trying to do something about the way boys and men are lagging behind in education is… Read more »
Danny, exactly …. this is how many if not most feminists view the MRM. So MRM’s spend a lot of time disclaiming falsehoods rather then getting the message out to and educating men. You stated three very real issues that get little to no media attention.
THE fatal flaw of thinking about men in this way at all is the focus on RIGHTS to begin with. The basic cause sets this up perfectly. The oppression of men being sent to war, for instance, is hard to combat as a rights issue. When there is no war, no one is making you do anything. When there is one, what kind of a piker are you, subverting the war effort, when we are all giving up rights for the cause? Most of these people are confused by the framing. Their intuition something is wrong is good, but we… Read more »
I think the article here and the one referenced had to do with PRIVILEGES, not rights. They are different. There is really no right to low insurance premiums, but there are privileges that go with a safe driving history which include low auto insurance premiums. The author here has attacked an article which argues that women have 18 privileges men don’t. Mr. Blest has basically said that is nonsense and men enjoy more privilege (not rights) than do women, a premise I disagree with and a big one is a woman’s privilege to decide whether to terminate the life of… Read more »
The discussion is not about Rights its about privileges. There is a difference. I think the article Mr. Blest attacks lists 18 privileges women enjoy that men do not. Mr. Blest attacked a couple of the listed privileges and then associated the men’s rights movement with white supremacy, which is absurd. He then concludes that because men occupy many positions of power in industry and government that what they do results in disadvantage to women. A premise I reject and really is unsupported in the article. Examples of that are that two-thirds of an all male congress voted to support… Read more »
MRM’s fatal flaw? How I see it is that they continue to have to “justify” who they are and who they represent. They struggle with getting their information out to the mainstream because a lot of time and energy is spend defending who they are and why they exists. They’re also charged with getting a society to see that there are men’s issues and that men are in fact facing problems, which as we have seen here at GMP, there’s an effort to show that men are privileged and are perceived to have an upper hand. Article after article here… Read more »
I had a male associate who used to laugh at what appeared to him to be over reacting when it came to men’s issues and problems in family court. That was until his wife filed for divorce. Then all of sudden he was in my office asking for help because he was being screwed over. I believe that many men who rubbish the MRM have simply either not become aware of injustices facing men or have not suffered personally from them. MRM’s still haven’t had the opportunity to educate because society doesn’t see the need, because society, including feminist organizations… Read more »
Starting from the first point, which actively seeks to promote the idea that a man who is avoided on a dark street is damaged in the same way (or worse) than an actual victim of a sexual assault, The heck it does. It claims nothing of the kind. It simply claims it is an advantage and one that follows gendered lines. Something you need to realise is that people often compare these things based on similarity in principle, not by degree. It is no less arbitrary than feminist framing of privilege. His manifesto ends with the argument that “female privilege… Read more »
@ OirishM “if you define terms so that women are always oppressed and men are always privileged….then hey presto, that’s what you’ll get.” They say that’s how they define it, but I suspect the way they really define it is men are the oppressor (always) and women are the oppressed (always). We get an article out of Slate that suggests that since women are entering into traditional seats of power, we probably should start defining sexual harassment differently. http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/04/17/locket_ceo_yunha_kim_talks_about_getting_unwanted_sexual_advances_on_the.html?wpisrc=hpsponsoredd2 “All of which is why it’s important to focus the discourse around sexual harassment on the issues of boundaries and consent,… Read more »
I see my speech was suppressed. Not surprising. Goodmenproject the conversation no one else is having especially those who disagree with us, at least not here. Mr. Saunders made 18 points of female privilege not the least of which was being able to decide whether or not to have a child. A woman can decide to kill a man’s child and the man has no recourse or a woman can bind a man to a lifetime of financial obligation by giving birth to a child the man may not want. That privilege virtually trumps all other privileges a man might… Read more »
Courage – The benefit of being a premium member is that I get to see the trashed responses. And yes Courage, I agree with you. But I don’t think anyone at GMP ever denied this is a feminist site. Accordingly, one has to look at much of what’s written is from a feminists perspective. Attempts to sway anyone at GMP from the feminist camp is futile at best. Their attempts to sway MRM into the feminist camp should be just as futile.
In all due respect I do not want to financially support the viewpoints expressed on this cite particularly in light of the fact that my viewpoint is routinely suppressed. I might consider purchasing a premium membership if I had assurance that my posts were not deleted by the editorial board. Once they have my money there is nothing I can do to get it back and nothing to stop censorship of my posts.
Courage, I know, I cringe at the thought of subsidizing but there is a convenience factor in that I don’t have to deal with all those advertisements which is another for of revenue and much more then a membership. I read the “trashed” responses and I’m often confused as to why they get trashed. One of mine recently went in the (strike that) three of them went in the dumpster and I sent one to Lisa to ask why. It also appears that the authors may also have authority as well. One in particular that I’m green with envy. Cough… Read more »
Yes, The Good Men Project suppressed your viewpoint, but somehow let the 15-20 other comments aimed at proving that I don’t know anything about the Men’s Rights movement or…anything, slide. Instead of being immediately cynical about this, repost it, and if it’s not anything irrationally offensive then I’ll personally let it go through.
I did not save it so unless I reconstruct it I cannot repost it. I don’t make posting comments here a career. To go through that much trouble is not time effective for me and since my writing is spontaneous I am not sure I could articulate the same point as effectively. I think you should adopt a policy that when a comment violates any provision of the published commentary policy it be removed and an explanation for its removal be posted in its place. My comments are routinely censored without explanation and that doesn’t strike me as having a… Read more »
I’ll forward that to our executive editors, but we get hundreds of comments on this site and we have a system that approves them. Sometimes I get an email from the system saying someone commented, and giving me an option to approve or reject it. This time, I’ve gotten no such emails. Was this the comment? “Ah, the old “Your comment is awaiting moderation” in other words as soon as you log off, the comment comes down because we can’t have the truth be seen even if it is seen by only a handful of people, because God knows nobody… Read more »
No, that got posted. My problem with your article is that you addressed the merits of maybe one or two of the 18 points of privilege Mr. Saunders articulated in his article and then you associated the whole movement with discredited white supremacy and that is not fair. Mr. Saunders referenced the following 3 points of privilege women have and they are not insignificant:. Female privilege is being able to decide not to have a child. 7. Female privilege is not having to support a child financially for 18 years when you didn’t want to have it in the first… Read more »
Courage, if you want, I can cut and paste what you wrote … see if it gets past the monitors? But then again, this one may not make it.
deciding whether or not to have a child isn’t privilege… it’s called biology. It’s about reproductive capabilities- what are you reproductively CAPABLE of doing? laws shouldn’t be based on people’s feelings and hopes and dreams. We don’t live in a fairy tale. and men can decide whether or not to have a child too… just with a different means (because they have different reproductive capabilites)… a man who doesn’t want a child refrains from sex or uses a condom or tries a new age method or a vasectomy. that’s a man’s capability. that’s his biology, that’s his reality – What… Read more »
@ lilbit “eciding whether or not to have a child isn’t privilege… it’s called biology. It’s about reproductive capabilities- what are you reproductively CAPABLE of doing?” It’s not just a question of having the child. It’s also the question of what happens after. When we say that a man can’t decide what a woman does with her body for 9 months by giving birth, but a woman can effectively decide what a man does with his body through his labor for 18 years by paying child support, it does become a matter of privilege rather than biology. Since his labor… Read more »
Since we’re talking about abortion which a women had the right to do. The way the laws are written. If a women grabs her keys because she’s leaving to go to the abortion clinic, hubby is angry that she’s getting an abortion, they tussle, she falls and looses the baby. The reality is that the husband will sustain additional charges for harm to the unborn.
Wow, the irony of that is compelling. Dad gets jail for unintentionally killing an unborn child Mom intended to abort without the threat of facing any consequences for aborting the child. That’s not a privilege is it?
@ lilbit
“If you have to lift 100lbs to be able to get a job, that job shouldn’t have to lower the standard to 80lbs because somebody can’t lift 100lbs but really wants the job.”
Then why isn’t women’s athletics privilege? Why not have two teams, an A team and a B team, and have them compete with the men / boys for a spot on either team? We shouldn’t have to lower the standard of athleticism because some people aren’t as athletic, but really, really want to be on the team.
If you have to gestate to have a baby, no one should be forced to gestate for you just because you can’t and you really want a baby. – See more at: https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/fatal-flaw-mens-rights-activists-pb/comment-page-1/#comment-1300320 When the man and the woman got into bed and engaged in the act that conceived the life did it run through either party’s mind that the act they were engaging in could create a life. Say the man fully realized and appreciated what he was doing at that moment (to so otherwise is irresponsible), but the woman in the heat of passion communicated to the man… Read more »
@ lilbit “eciding whether or not to have a child isn’t privilege… it’s called biology. It’s about reproductive capabilities- what are you reproductively CAPABLE of doing?” One more thing to consider. There is biology and biological capability and there is the law. Currently the laws favor those who’s biology can be classified as “female”. Should the laws favor this biology and what is the morality behind it? While these laws favor the people with this “female” biology, is it tantamount to female privilege? Let’s look at the abortion scenario. Currently women can have abortions and men are expected to pay… Read more »
Let’s say abortion is banned. If a woman has an abortion, she faces the consequence of the law., not the father She has the same obligations to the child unless and until adopted as he, but she has to carry the child and go through labor also because we know who the mother is, she is less likely to be able to avoid these responsibilities. The laws would advantage male biology. – See more at: https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/fatal-flaw-mens-rights-activists-pb/#sthash.I1DHaSnN.dpuf If abortion were illegal and the man knew his gf/wife was going to have an abortion and he did nothing to stop her, such… Read more »
Ah, the old “Your comment is awaiting moderation” in other words as soon as you log off, the comment comes down because we can’t have the truth be seen even if it is seen by only a handful of people, because God knows nobody reads this site anyway.
It’s amazing and probably a testament to the site that there could be this article and this one
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/talk-men-top-10-issues-today-gmp/
I would suggest that the author of this article read the other (and the comments). It might change his perspective.
“The men’s rights movement is a reactionary, desperate attempt to hold onto social and political power.”
The social power of being laughed at for being a sexual assault victim, and the political power of getting more severe sentences for the same crime(compared to a woman), it would seem.
“And just like those championing the “plight” of white people, it has and will continue to fall into intellectual obscurity, because it is patently absurd.” Possibly. Only one way to find out, really. Then again, if it’s really destined for the dustbin of history, then I wonder why it would ever be necessary to say so much about it. This sounds like wishful thinking. I’m also curious what it means to be perpetually falling into obscurity. Sounds almost zen, really. Besides, right or wrong, whether a movement is absurd or not, or intellectually bankrupt or not, has very little bearing… Read more »
In trying to understand reality, I try to take ideas and arguments at their face value, separate from the people making those arguments. I try to separate ideologies from their practitioners, and I try to distinguish between the ideas and the things done in the name of those ideas. Judging ideas by the people who present them is not a very good approach to determining whether those ideas are valid or not. This is how I try to approach the MRM and feminism, and how I try to approach religions, for example Christianity. At the center of Christianity are some… Read more »
@ wellokaythen “As for simply being an attempt to hang on to privilege, no doubt that’s part of the story. I don’t think that’s the full explanation” The problem I have with that is what privilege are they trying to hold on to? I think that’s an assumption or maybe a wish. It may also be a reaction to the MRM challenging female privilege and an attempt to hold on to that. Like I said in another post, many people argue that feminism is about equality. They point to the dictionary definition. I then asked how does a feminist define… Read more »
“It may also be a reaction to the MRM challenging female privilege and an attempt to hold on to that.” In the spirit of trying to keep this a concise argument I’ll try to address a lot of your points in one post. Forgive me/let me know if I’m missing something Paying less for insurance – something is completely capitalistic in nature. Young men are statistically more likely to get into accidents, etc. Also, the people who run every major insurance agency are majority men. Just looked up the top 5 insurance companies and all of the CEOs are men.… Read more »
@ Paul Blest Let me see if I can address some of your issues and if the mods let me. “Paying less for insurance – something is completely capitalistic in nature ” Yet, there are laws in place that specifically bar insurance companies from charging women more. There are also laws in place that require insurance companies to provide women with coverages that are not provided to men. For example, women have the ability to define an OBGYN. They can see this person without a referral fee. If I want to see a urologist, I have to see my primary… Read more »
@ Paul Blest Assuming my last comment gets approved. Here is the rest of the response to your comment. “First part – explain how this is due to female privilege rather than a racist justice system? Simple, you just need to answer one question. Why there many times more minority men in prison than minority women? If it was just based on race, why are the prisons not equally full of minority women? “Second part – because more sexual assaults are committed by men. I’d love to see some statistics proving otherwise.” That doesn’t explain why male sexual predators are… Read more »
Paying less for insurance – something is completely capitalistic in nature. Young men are statistically more likely to get into accidents, etc. Also, the people who run every major insurance agency are majority men. Just looked up the top 5 insurance companies and all of the CEOs are men. – See more at: https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/fatal-flaw-mens-rights-activists-pb/#sthash.s5yjkicV.dpuf Yes young men are more likely to get into accidents, like car accidents and auto insurance will pay for injuries suffered in an auto accident, not health insurance and auto insurance premiums for young men is commensurately higher than they are for women. Similarly, someone injured… Read more »
I just need to throw this in about auto insurance. Men’s rates have been historically higher simply because men in the past, drove more then women, accordingly, they were at a higher risk. I believe the ratio of men verses women have more then likely leveled off, why should they change the rates, men are still paying. Yet another example of men being oblivious.
In all due respect Tom, my 20 year old son’s automobile insurance is about 60% higher than my 18 year old daughter’s. So I am not sure where you get the idea that they have leveled off. Not in my experience and not in the experience of friends who have children who are driving.
Courage, what I mean by “leveled off” is that men and women are driving at equal levels now yet men’s rates are still higher. Point is that men are still paying the higher premium without questioning the higher rates.
Paul: Oirish’s sexism point – Because “reverse sexism” isn’t real on a large scale. If you show me a company run by women where men are fired for refusing the sexual advances of their bosses, I’ll concede that there was prejudice and possibly sexism involved in that. But on a large scale, no, we still live in patriarchal society. The point is that even some feminists will describe what is termed female privilege as benevolent sexism. I would agree that reverse sexism isn’t a real thing – because it’s just sexism, pure and simple. Beyond that your argument simply boils… Read more »
Finally – I’m not trying to “convert” anyone. I think the beauty of this site is how much we promote different viewpoints, and anyone who has read my articles knows I’m someone who tries their best to respond to anything that the commenters on my articles think is unfair or wrong. I enjoy the debate, and just because I’m a writer for this site doesn’t mean I’m on any kind of pedestal over any of you. If you want to write something for the site explaining why you think anything I said was wrong, feel free to email me at… Read more »
Finally – I’m not trying to “convert” anyone. I think the beauty of this site is how much we promote different viewpoints, – See more at: https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/fatal-flaw-mens-rights-activists-pb/#sthash.zlp7dtJQ.dpuf
This site promotes different viewpoints? Really? That is false. My viewpoint though in full compliance with the commenting policy is routinely deleted without explanation. The Commenting policy leaves within the discretion of the editors and writers the authority to delete any comment without explanation. That is not a policy that promotes different viewpoints. To say otherwise is nonsense.
“it just never, ever has” With all due respect, I’m calling bullshit. “When women get away with the sexual harassment of their male employees” They don’t need to. They already get away with vastly more rapes than the most predatory men can ever dream to. The CDC as well as numerous other studies have found that women are the vast majority of the sexual abusers of men / boys and men / boys are abused in comparable numbers to women / girls. When a female sexual predator has the same chance of being held accountable as a male sexual predator,… Read more »
John, I can all way count on you to point out what SHOULD be the obvious. Information you’re presented has been information that even here at GMP, has been disclosed/discussed. And I’d like to add that you’ve only touched on the issues.
“The CDC as well as numerous other studies have found that women are the vast majority of the sexual abusers of men / boys and men / boys are abused in comparable numbers to women / girls.” Actually most studies still show most boys/men are raped by other men. Most men are raped in prison by other men. But girls and women are the vast majority of sexual abuse victims out of prison. “Men are 9 times more likely to be killed in industrial accidents. We hear about equal pay day. What about equal risk day. It’s 9 years in… Read more »
There’s all kinds of power in our society, men wield some, women wield others.
Just calling MRA advocates ‘reactionary’ or ‘just like racists’ doesn’t really bother to address their arguments.
@ BigBadBob That’s the problem with most of the commentary about the MRM from a feminist point of view. Feminists want to say that feminism will address the concerns of men when they they’re fully aware that it won’t. They don’t want to address the concerns of men and in some cases wish to do harm to men or at least choose to advantage women regardless of it’s detriment to men. Look at the adoption laws. It’s MRAs pushing to tighten the laws. The other thing is what if it is reactionary? Maybe it needs to be. I remember when… Read more »
NOW,being visible and a power force wrote this “There is a national crisis for women and their children in the family law courts of this country. Affirmed by experts and leaders in the women’s movement, the existence of this crisis is verified by women in every state who report injustice in their family law cases…” Accordingly they have done this “In response to the discrimination and harassment women often face in family courts, the NOW Family Law Ad Hoc Committee has developed a brochure that provides practical recommendations for women encountering a difficult divorce or child custody case. I find… Read more »
Pretty much. Instead of addressing them its just a race to associate then with something else that’s already established as bad.
Is there some way that you can see me standing and applauding your article.
Way to many MRA are bordering on Woman Hating. Some are becoming the Men-Hating Ultra feminists of the 60’s, groups that now most Modern Feminists agree did more damage than good to the cause of Gender equality.
And their Female counterparts are throwing all MRA in the same boat as these idiots (yes, those extremists are idiots in my book.)
You suddenly have the Taliban arguing with the West Baptist Church who is right. All Muslims and Christians end up losing that Debate.
Ha! In that case there are a lot more extremist idiots in feminism than you might think.
I really wish that those arguing against MRA’s would actually study what the MRM stands for.
Thanks for the comment, Diz. Unfortunately, I’ve seen way too many critiques of MRAs along with readers who make the same type of comment as yours.
I’ve researched the National Coalition for Men, along with several different cases that the MRM has taken up, I’ve tried to get a grasp of the biggest online community for men’s rights activists (the subreddit), and this is the understanding I’ve come away with. If you feel my understanding is wrong in any way, I’d be more than happy to have a discussion about it.
One of the problems is that the MRM is diverse. The best known portion and probably oldest is probably one that you never even looked at because it’s now considered mainstream, the father’s rights movement. It’s part of the MRM. All fathers were men and they weren’t advocating for the rights of mothers who were all women. Many don’t see that as part of the men’s rights movement because they don’t see them as radical, but that’s not the fault of the MRM. It’s confirmation bias that people bring to the table. When you walk in assuming that all MRAs… Read more »
Exactly. We’re at a point where anyone that IDs as MRA doesn’t act like that subreddit or the A Voice for Men crowd then the conclusion is that they aren’t “real MRAs”. Because broad generalizations are a lot easier than nuance.
There is also a problem with the framing in terms of rights. We all have the right to be free of police brutality. But 98% of those who die of police brutality are male. Instead, we have a lot of international concern with police rape, and no concern at all for this disparity in more extreme police brutality. And it is not about the significance of rape vs murder and other violence. When it turned out that just about half of the sexual abuse in the military was of men, the media suddenly stopped reporting on the issue altogether. We… Read more »