~ archived since 2018 ~
~ archived since 2018 ~
| Upvotes | Title | Category | Author | Subreddit | Date (UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 262 | Peer-reviewed study concludes that misandry is“false” | article | Hot-Celebration-1524 | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 28/11/25 05:09 AM |
| Upvotes | Comment on | Subreddit | Date (UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | “I’d Work Weekends Because I Just Didn’t Want to Go Home”: The Spillover Effects of Intimate Partner Violence Victimization on Men’s Personal Well-Being and Working LivesMockery is almost always a social act. The mocker needs an audience, or at least the imagined approval of one, because they are afraid of what the victim represents. To some people, masculinity is associated with invulnerability. A man is supposed to be strong and hard to hurt. So when a man is abused, it exposes the limits of that belief, and instead of accepting vulnerability as real, people double down on the idea that he must have failed as a man. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 30/06/26 03:34 AM |
| 42 | The Projection of negative Male stereotypes on neurodivergent folksSociety still codes disability as personal failure. Because of that, people often struggle to accept that someone genuinely cannot do something. Instead, they reinterpret disability as choice and label it as laziness, entitlement, or another moral failing. This resolves the cognitive dissonance between what they believe and the reality. With men, that reaction is stronger because masculinity norms assume full agency. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 26/05/26 07:13 PM |
| 10 | MEN ARE THE OPPRESSED GENDERI wasn’t claiming that crying, sadness, withdrawal, and low energy are the formal criteria, but I accept the correction as what I was describing are closer to common clinical markers of depression. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/05/26 03:59 PM |
| 53 | MEN ARE THE OPPRESSED GENDERI want to point out that the diagnostic criteria for depression (e.g. crying, sadness, withdrawal, low energy) maps more readily onto female socialization norms. Men, by contrast, are taught to suppress vulnerability, so their distress is often externalized (e.g. anger, risk-taking, substance abuse) which can make depression harder to identify. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/05/26 03:00 PM |
| 49 | I have noticed that the phrase "not all men" is mostly used by Feminists to say "not all men... but ALWAYS a man/mostly men"This is basically people picking sides. They argue to prove loyalty to their group, not to understand each other. Look up schismogensis, this is a well-established phenomenon. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 23/05/26 03:31 AM |
| 22 | The real problem with discourse surrounding social issues.Reason was once viewed as a purely truth-seeking faculty, but evidence suggests it evolved to help groups cooperate. That’s why in debates, an argument doesn’t need to be true to be effective. It just needs to be persuasive enough to rally the tribe. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 18/05/26 05:58 PM |
| 9 | How the Ruling Class Exploits Male Violence as a Systemic ResourceThis is Youth Bulge Theory, no? The idea that when a state has a large population of disenfranchised men, it weaponizes their frustration rather than addressing the conditions that caused it. So by directing that anger toward a foreign enemy, the ruling class consolidates power while basically culling the demographic most likely to revolt. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 16/05/26 12:18 AM |
| 33 | "Women don't start wars" and other myths.I find it interesting when feminists demand the authority to lead a nation but deny the obligation to defend it. They want a seat at the table and will help themselves to the status that power confers. But when that power has to be backed by force, they leave men to cover the cost. It’s like the ultimate "dine and dash" of political philosophy. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/05/26 05:05 AM |
| 35 | Men do NOT need to “do better”.It’s socially acceptable stereotyping. “Do better” is vague enough to sound righteous and broad enough to let the stereotype do the talking. Imagine hearing “Black people need to do better” or “Muslims need to do better” or whatever. It’s virtue signaling, projection, or both. And the irony is that the speaker usually thinks they are opposing prejudice while using the exact logic of prejudice. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 09/05/26 05:52 PM |
| 15 | This was in my School’s Library Social Justice sectionMost pop culture books are like junk food for the mind. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 08/05/26 11:54 AM |
| -11 | Man I still can’t believe how acceptable misandry isTo begin with, misogyny and misandry are not descriptive labels meaning they don’t map onto observable reality. In a literal sense, neither actually exists. The reason misandry is unlikely to catch on in the way you might expect is that misogyny was effectively invented within feminist theory as a political tool to deconstruct norms. Misandry has no theoretical basis and therefore will never achieve the same status as misogyny. I personally try to avoid vocabulary from critical theories because … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 05/05/26 09:55 PM |
| 7 | Men, we have to stop seeing each other as the enemy.This is a good response. The truth is, there is no fixed model of masculinity. What we often hear and see is simply the version that holds the most cultural power: the hegemonic form, where status is a zero-sum game and dominance is the primary metric of worth. But masculinity is plural, meaning men understand and live it in different ways. The version [u/TSSalamander](u/TSSalamander) describes is the one I subscribe to, basically the notion is keep the pro-social aspects of traditional masculin… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 03/05/26 11:11 PM |
| 4 | Genuinely curious where women get the idea men sexually assault men more than womenThe cornerstone of modern social justice is the idea of equity, where fairness is measured more by group membership than by equal treatment between individuals. In gender conflict, women are often seen as the disadvantaged group, so institutions are more likely to prioritize their safety and needs. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 02/05/26 03:20 AM |
| 81 | Genuinely curious where women get the idea men sexually assault men more than womenNotice how the media frames gendered violence. When a man is the perpetrator, the language is active, as in “man assaults woman” or “boyfriend attacks girlfriend.” But when a woman is the perpetrator, the language shifts to passive voice, as in “man was assaulted by woman” or “boyfriend attacked by girlfriend.” I know this is not always the case, but the pattern has been studied and reveals how agency and aggression are still culturally coded as male. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 01/05/26 09:11 PM |
| 22 | Juvenile foreskin amputation is a sensational atrocityIt’s a cultural norm that has been medicalized, but it functions like a ritual of purity where parents choose it to make their child “clean” and “normal.” It’s also a sticky norm because accepting the premise of mutilation means the individual has to reconcile the fact that their parents were complicit in the violation. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 01/05/26 06:41 PM |
| 13 | Quote of the Day: Karen StraughanMy politics is irrelevant to the point I'm making, which is that the field is organized around storytelling. I mean consider your argument, which moves in the direction of interpretation. Finding a sex-based bias doesn’t prove a causal link; it merely shows the scholar’s ability to find what they were looking for. Adding layers like race or class doesn't make the research more objective, it just adds more characters to the story. The plot remains the same, which is the assumption of gendered pow… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 29/04/26 05:59 PM |
| 15 | Quote of the Day: Karen StraughanFeminist scholarship can be intellectually rigorous without functioning as explanatory in the scientific sense. Your reference to Marx highlights my central point which is that these interpretive frameworks function more as stories than as testable accounts of how the world works. Marx created a protagonist (the proletariat) and an antagonist (the bourgeoisie) and framed history as a conflict between them. It organized reality into a story in which actors were assigned roles and events given dir… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 29/04/26 03:35 PM |
| 58 | Quote of the Day: Karen StraughanPatriarchy is a grand narrative. It’s the bedrock of modern feminist theory, which is an interpretive, story-based field rather than an explanatory or causal one. It fits more into the shape of literary theory by personifying abstract forces, mapping social groups into roles, and unifying complex and often unrelated events into simplified plots with recurring themes. Edit: I’ve made this point elsewhere, but it’s important to repeat because feminist scholarship is assumed to be empirical when mu… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 29/04/26 12:23 PM |
| 2 | I need help with my upcoming assignment.The salience effect also makes for better stories and the Patriarchy is, at its core, a grand narrative. It forms the bedrock of modern feminist theory, which is primarily an interpretive, story-based field rather than an explanatory or causal one. It fits more into the shape of literary theory by personifying abstract forces, mapping social groups into roles, reducing complex events into simplified plots that have direction and meaning, and there are recurring themes found within much of its li… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 29/04/26 04:27 AM |
| 7 | I need help with my upcoming assignment.u/Similar-Pear4585 An argument can be made that feminist scholarship employs strategic ignorance regarding male victimhood by directing research questions and funding primarily toward female victims, thereby preserving the “male-as-oppressor” axiom. There is also sampling bias, as much feminist research draws on data from DV shelters and police reports. Because women are statistically more likely to seek help and report crime, these samples tend to show high rates of male perpetration. When male… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 29/04/26 03:00 AM |
| 7 | A genuine concern about the idea of a patriarchyHumans tend to view others as either agents who act or patients who are acted upon. Historically, gender roles created a sharp divide between these categories, casting men as agents and women as patients. This shaped a bias in which male behavior is interpreted through responsibility and female behavior through vulnerability. So when a man becomes a victim of sexual violence, it creates profound cognitive dissonance. If he is expected to be an agent, he is assumed to be able to prevent the assau… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 28/04/26 03:23 PM |
| 2 | A story of radicalisation: A young student who grew up in a “liberal bubble,” with a model dad teaching her equality (and that women are better), now believes misandry and aggression against men are necessaryMy earlier point is that projection can be inferred more reliably at the individual level; at the group level it becomes much more speculative. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 27/04/26 04:12 PM |
| 8 | A story of radicalisation: A young student who grew up in a “liberal bubble,” with a model dad teaching her equality (and that women are better), now believes misandry and aggression against men are necessaryYes, the problem with groups is that they’re not a single mind. Projection can be inferred from individuals, but it’s pretty much impossible to establish at the group level. That said, I agree that a lot of the assumptions in gender discourse have the shape of projection. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 27/04/26 03:22 PM |
| 22 | A story of radicalisation: A young student who grew up in a “liberal bubble,” with a model dad teaching her equality (and that women are better), now believes misandry and aggression against men are necessarySome people project their hostility onto others and then use guilt and shame to pressure them into internalizing it. It’s the ultimate power trip because it convinces the target to become their own jailer. The target learns to police their own thoughts and feelings through internalized shame and stigma, while the aggressor evades responsibility and experiences a kind of moral absolution. This is well described in the literature on narcissistic abuse, where the victim is pressured to adopt the na… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 27/04/26 02:48 PM |
| 18 | A story of radicalisation: A young student who grew up in a “liberal bubble,” with a model dad teaching her equality (and that women are better), now believes misandry and aggression against men are necessaryIt’s not necessarily that men have a negative in-group bias, but that they are often in direct competition with one another, so other men are seen more as rivals than allies. On top of that, research shows that men with higher sex drives tend to show stronger positive bias toward women. So their loyalties are divided: men compete with other men while being drawn toward women, which helps explain why men often show less unity than women. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 27/04/26 12:58 PM |
| 18 | A story of radicalisation: A young student who grew up in a “liberal bubble,” with a model dad teaching her equality (and that women are better), now believes misandry and aggression against men are necessaryI think it’s important to keep a few things in mind here. One, controversial opinions drive traffic. Two, this tracks with strategic essentialism, or the deliberate use of an essentialist position to shift norms. It’s divisive and often ends in a race to the bottom. Three, even if this is just for engagement, it’s still an extreme position. It isn’t normal to view an entire group as a threat and conclude that attacking them is necessary for your safety. It’s a clear case of weaponized paranoia, … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 27/04/26 12:00 PM |
| 48 | Still think "manosphere", is toxic? How about UN Women saying MRAs are "core part" of manosphere?It’s like UN Women is sitting in an ivory tower describing the reflection in the window while eating cake and warning others about the dangers of sugar. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 27/04/26 09:48 AM |
| 14 | Does this Women’s Aid statement come across as dismissive of male victims, or am I reading too much into it?Lol, the text introduces a liar narrative and implies that male reports of IPV are likely false or exaggerated. It pays lip service to the idea that all domestic violence victims deserve support (the motte), while casting male victims as unreliable or the actual abusers, and therefore undeserving of support (the bailey). | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 25/04/26 11:30 AM |
| 8 | The question I wish people would stop askingThe masculinity debate is a contest over expectations for male behavior. It’s a normative effort to define a “universal man” that institutions can use to organize labor and maintain order. And much of the disagreement you see is on the question of nature versus nurture, with three camps offering different answers: traditionalists, progressives, and reactionaries. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/04/26 09:06 PM |
| 43 | Why is it assumed that the same content that young men are getting rage baited by has no effect on women?Women on average value self-disclosure more than men, so there is a tendency especially online for this group to engage in co-rumination, where the same problems are repeatedly discussed without coming to any resolution. It's a negative feedback loop that wreaks havoc on mental health. Also take into account that many of these discussions take place in “safe spaces,” where the goal is to be seen, heard, and believed. So questioning the accuracy of a claim is interpreted as invalidating the perso… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/04/26 06:45 AM |
| 40 | Dear feminist guests: mainstream feminism is a hate group - If you identify as a feminist and don't hate men, you are the fringeYes. As u/sakura_drop pointed out, SCUM is a seminal text and included in gender-studies coursework at many Western universities. A common interpretation is that Solanas was holding a mirror to society, and that the violent, eugenic rhetoric was meant to shock and expose readers to the violence of the patriarchy. I take a more literal view because the text doesn’t rely on irony and remains vitriolic from beginning to end. It’s also a manifesto, which by definition is a declaration of intent, and… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/04/26 03:32 AM |
| 25 | Dear feminist guests: mainstream feminism is a hate group - If you identify as a feminist and don't hate men, you are the fringeExactly. Good faith requires a willingness to revise beliefs, but feminist ideology (and social ideologies more broadly) is “sticky” because it’s tied to identity. Changing beliefs therefore means changing how you understand yourself and the world. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 23/04/26 09:50 PM |
| 67 | Dear feminist guests: mainstream feminism is a hate group - If you identify as a feminist and don't hate men, you are the fringeConsider how Valerie Solanas’s SCUM Manifesto (Society for Cutting Up Men) is received. It is studied in academia as part of radical feminist thought and, in some feminist circles, understood as allegorical: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskFeminists/comments/2c6ee4/comment/cjclnxx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button Imagine if a male advocate wrote a “Society for Cutting Up Women” manifesto? It would be treated as hate speech and probably invest… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 23/04/26 09:04 PM |
| 32 | Who will stop the fear merchants?It’s also worth pointing out that popular culture still hasn’t accepted that we’re in a post-truth era, so outdated assumptions keep people from understanding how information actually circulates and gets politicized. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 22/04/26 11:31 PM |
| 9 | "62 million men participating in an online Rape Academy" or "95.1% of men admit to having forced a woman to have sex" are hoaxes, but they're not the only ones and none of the women involved have been held accountable (as they like to say) for spreading any of them. Here's a list:I would say opportunists or outrage influencers. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 20/04/26 08:08 PM |
| 14 | Lack of proper research of MisandryIt's more of a debate between intellectual traditions. In the scientific view, claims are expected to be testable or falsifiable, and language is mainly used to describe and explain the world. Misogyny/misandry would therefore be treated as equivalent forms of prejudice. In the post-structuralist view, claims are interpretive and language is mainly seen as normative and political. Misogyny/misandry aren’t used in parallel because the terms are defined not just by prejudice but by a particular vi… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 19/04/26 10:08 PM |
| 38 | Lack of proper research of MisandryMuch of modern gender studies defines misogyny within a framework influenced by critical theory, which posits that: Oppression = Prejudice + Institutional Power Men are understood as holding institutional power (e.g. government, military, finance) therefore hostility toward women is labeled misogyny. Because the framework assumes men hold power, the term “misandry” is often reduced to prejudice. Now keep in mind that the engine behind modern gender studies is standpoint theory, so these terms ar… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 19/04/26 09:31 PM |
| 18 | Only a third of young women hold positive view of men, new poll findsThe algos create feedback loops of negative content because negative content keeps people engaged, and the more engaged they are the more their perceptions can skew. Content creators also game the system and push the most controversial shit especially gender-war content because it generates massive traffic. Regulation would be ideal, but realistically this is a media literacy problem. A lot of content online is basically engagement farming. There’s constant baiting from clickbait, rage bait, rep… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 17/04/26 11:00 AM |
| 15 | Society's Obsession with Coddling Misandrists, and Why that's a ProblemA lot of resistance to Men’s Studies came from how knowledge was historically defined. For centuries, the canon was written by and about men but presented as universal. Women’s Studies therefore emerged as a corrective to that. Men’s Studies began to develop not long afterward, once scholars started arguing that traditional disciplines had treated men largely as disembodied actors (i.e. leaders, soldiers, workers, thinkers) rather than as gendered subjects. But by the time this argument was acce… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 16/04/26 03:29 AM |
| 22 | The Men Are Not AlrightMidwit discourse | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/04/26 05:44 PM |
| 3 | I sometimes feel like The Bourgeoisie created and perpetuates modern "Patriarchy Theory" as a tool of divide and rule.That’s a fair interpretation. My understanding of what u/SchalaZeal01 is saying is that there is a relatively small group of people who act as gatekeepers over which ideas get amplified, so even if it’s not a formal conspiracy the effect can look similar to one. If the people running these organizations are responding to the same pressures, then it makes sense that their solutions would converge. I also think that people conform because expressing dissent carries the risk of losing status. Then … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/04/26 03:06 AM |
| 3 | I sometimes feel like The Bourgeoisie created and perpetuates modern "Patriarchy Theory" as a tool of divide and rule.I agree that people influence outcomes and that some groups hold a great deal of power. My point is that there isn’t unified control. What we see instead is partial control and alignment that can look like coordination from the outside. But there isn’t evidence of a single person, group, or unified front of “elites” directing the process. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 14/04/26 04:55 PM |
| 3 | I sometimes feel like The Bourgeoisie created and perpetuates modern "Patriarchy Theory" as a tool of divide and rule.Yeah, that makes sense. Institutions tend to preserve ideas that justify their existence. It’s a bit like evolutionary biology, where a species doesn't intentionally develop traits rather the environment selects for what helps them survive. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 14/04/26 04:41 PM |
| 4 | I sometimes feel like The Bourgeoisie created and perpetuates modern "Patriarchy Theory" as a tool of divide and rule.I see the point about platforming, but I think even that attributes too much unified intent. What we’re mostly seeing instead is institutional isomorphism, where organizations converge because they’re responding to similar pressures and incentives, not because they’re following some shared playbook. Take the Duluth Model. Its large-scale adoption isn’t evidence that a group was trying to move the Overton window (though there may be some of that at the margins). But the evidence points to path de… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 14/04/26 04:19 PM |
| -1 | I sometimes feel like The Bourgeoisie created and perpetuates modern "Patriarchy Theory" as a tool of divide and rule.Can we stop endorsing this kind of conspiracy logic? Most social outcomes are unintended consequences, so even though powerful groups can influence the direction of social change, no single group has the capacity to coordinate and secretly design something as diverse and decentralized as feminism. Parts of it were later co-opted, but there’s no evidence it originated as a deliberate elite strategy. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 14/04/26 03:26 PM |
| 1 | Fake Bitch Bashing Month ControversyThanks for sharing. I read through the beginning of the conversation and skimmed through the rest. Here are my thoughts, I hope this helps! Some of your claims are overstated and your conclusions somewhat broad, but you keep the discussion at the level of argument. OP would therefore need to engage with the substance of your claims and dispute your conclusions if they wanted the debate to move forward. Keep in mind that the strength of an argument depends on the content of the claim (the evidenc… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 14/04/26 05:52 AM |
| 1 | Fake Bitch Bashing Month ControversyFor me, I disengage when the discussion shifts from evaluating claims to undermining or attacking someone. If a position is strong, then evidence and logic can be used to defend it. When someone lashes out, all of that higher-order cognition (e.g. logic, reason, morals; concepts like fairness, perspective, nuance; critical thinking in general) goes offline. The person is literally operating at a base level, where their only concern is winning, and at that point they’re not worth my time. It’s li… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 13/04/26 04:48 PM |
| 17 | "The phrase “women and children” is demeaning to everyone. It equates women to children and promotes them as helpless and de-intellectualizes them. It makes men sound like they matter more (or less, depending on context) than other sexes. It omits NB people from existing. Leave it in the past."My understanding is that male disposability grew out of small-scale societies where men were expected to fight and hunt and were therefore most often exposed to danger. Throw in the development of culture and you get the expectation that men take risks. Fast forward to medieval Europe and those guys decided to formalize the whole thing through chivalry, where a “real man” wasn’t just someone who faced danger but someone who would place himself in harm’s way voluntarily. To add some context, in t… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 10/04/26 09:17 AM |
| 81 | Here is an interesting - and arguably rare - example of a scholar labeling herself as feminist approaching an aspect of male sexuality and identity in (what I would argue is) a supportive and male-positive wayIt’s important to keep in mind that Western and Eastern societies grew out of very different moral traditions. In the West, there’s a sin culture so ideas tend to be discussed in moral terms. That helps explain why Western feminists often frame social phenomena using language like “toxic,” “problematic,” or “wrong.” These are essentially modern versions of an older religious habit of identifying sin. Western thought also has a long tradition of searching for universal truths, which explains the … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 10/04/26 07:18 AM |
| 14 | Men’s rights activism faces obstacles at three levelsThere is no such thing as “the Patriarchy” or this unifying force of male dominance. Society is far more decentralized than that, where there are multiple, overlapping systems that produce tradeoffs. Anyone peddling a “grand design” theory is either blinded by ideology or simply hasn't looked at a map of social power lately. Building on that point, the pivot from “the Patriarchy” to “gendered power” in academic feminism is the same idea just less conspiratorial. Outside of feminism (and postmode… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 08/04/26 05:57 AM |
| 24 | Actively Looking for Specific Cases of Male Victims of Female Perpetrators Broadly Recognized and Supported by FeministsFemale abusers tend to favor relational aggression, where control works through attacks on perception and credibility. They use smear campaigns to shift blame onto the victim while preserving plausible deniability. The goal is to isolate and turn the victim’s support network against them, leaving the victim with no one left to confirm what is real except the abuser. Edit: It is entirely plausible to view feminism as a high-level smear campaign that targets the credibility of men as narrators of … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 08/04/26 01:22 AM |
| 86 | Anti-male sentiment on Reddit is stronger than everFirst I consider whether the space is ideological, if it is then I don’t engage because i know that I will be attacked and eventually dehumanized. These are basically online tribes where evidence and logic are selectively applied, if used at all. Second, if there’s no clear in-group or polarization, I read the room and look at the quality of the arguments being made. If people are responding to what’s actually being said, using evidence, and willing to concede or self-correct, then it’s usually … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 03/04/26 06:10 AM |
| 13 | Does the left not understand they're inadvertently validating what the manosphere has been saying about them when they make insults regarding men's bodies?Elites are not truly principled because a principle only matters when someone is willing to lose status to defend it. Since status is the currency of elite life, applying principles would mean treating allies and enemies the same and that would cost them influence they can’t afford to lose. So in the case of AOC, defending universal body positivity risks betraying allies who “punch up” as a political strategy against conservative power. The paradox of modern progressivism is that it inverts the … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 27/03/26 05:07 AM |
| 0 | Thoughts on Bell Hooks?This is a good example of where feminism is useful in its analytic form, where findings reflect patterns across multiple groups rather than centering on a single one. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 16/03/26 01:13 AM |
| 8 | Thoughts on Bell Hooks?If a framework is meant to remain analytical, it cannot simultaneously function as the engine of a movement. The two pull in opposite directions: analysis requires patience and attention to complexity, while movements require urgency and simple narratives. Once a framework becomes a tool of advocacy, it simplifies interpretation and ceases to function descriptively, instead advancing normative claims that serve the movement’s goals. For that reason, the problem cannot be reduced to communication… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 16/03/26 12:46 AM |
| 30 | Thoughts on Bell Hooks?Societies sent men to war because male sacrifice was treated as an obligation. Despite their disposability, men were still valorized since the expectation was sacrifice, not blame. Hostility toward a group generally emerges when a group is blamed for social problems. Misandry therefore appears largely modern, since men were rarely framed as a problem group. That changed with the feminist theory of patriarchy which introduced the exact kind of narrative that cast men as responsible for many of so… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/03/26 10:08 PM |
| 54 | Thoughts on Bell Hooks?Research shows that negative attitudes toward entire groups usually grow out of ideas and narratives, not personal experience. For example, homophobia historically spread through religious narratives describing same-sex relationships as immoral. Racism developed through racial narratives that depicted entire populations as inferior. Xenophobia grows from nationalist narratives that portray outsiders as dangerous. Misandry follows the same pattern and is better understood as an ideological phenom… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/03/26 09:13 PM |
| 9 | Female only dorm but no male only dorm at a Backpackers LodgeSituations involving privacy would be difficult to address, but not impossible. That said, I agree that gender segregation norms foster mistrust and need to change. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 14/03/26 02:19 PM |
| 11 | Did We Fall Into A Trap?Humans reason through stories, which are linear and monocausal. That simplicity bias makes “root cause” explanations intuitively appealing, where one dominant system is used to explain a wide range of social phenomena e.g., capitalism explains class conflict, patriarchy explains gender outcomes, white supremacy explains racial disparities, and so on. Most of these theories begin as attempts to highlight one variable within a complex system. But as a theory gains influence and is applied to more … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 14/03/26 08:00 AM |
| 26 | Did We Fall Into A Trap?OP’s argument follows the same kind of ideological reduction you see in feminism with the patriarchy, white supremacy in race theory, and so on. Here, we have capitalism as the master explanation and everything else downstream of it. I honestly wish these metanarratives would stop dominating discussions, then we could actually get to the bottom of why people are suffering and what can actually be done about it. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 14/03/26 04:50 AM |
| 47 | Men have to deal with unwanted sexual comments all the time, yet are treated as the problem if they speak out against it while also being told only women have to deal with being sexualized.Every ideology has its hypocrites, but progressive hypocrisy can feel especially jarring because you don’t expect to be degraded by people who claim to defend human dignity. Yet some of the worst offenders, those who seem to have no problem dehumanizing others, are progressives. I think part of the reason is that many believe their intent is pure, which creates a blind spot to bad behavior. There’s also a popular take on critical theory that assumes only the powerful can cause harm. That logic m… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 13/03/26 07:32 AM |
| 5 | Misandry is systemicIt’s basically subtyping. Instead of revising the belief, people create an exception category that prevents dissonance from fully activating. So you hear things like “men are oppressive except my brother,” or “welfare recipients are lazy except my nephew,” or “immigrants are the problem except my neighbor,” and so on. Stereotypes are a useful heuristic for dealing with fear of the other, whereas revising a core belief demands a lot of time and energy. The more interesting question, though, isn’t… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 12/03/26 07:37 AM |
| 7 | Misandry is systemicThis kind of abstraction u/Karmaze is pointing to shows up everywhere in culture. The further away something is socially, the simpler our moral model becomes. Close relationships force us to see individuals, while at distance we have to abstract and rely on categories. And political rhetoric amplifies this tendency by reducing complex systems to groups of people. If you belong to that group, you’re judged through the moral assumptions attached to it, so you end up being treated more like a symbo… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 12/03/26 05:47 AM |
| 3 | Misandry is systemicRelatedly, one could argue that Patriarchy grew out of physics envy, which is the tendency in soft sciences to simplify and universalize what are otherwise complex, disconnected phenomena. What’s amusing is that intersectional feminism was intended to solve the monocausality of that earlier theory, yet it reproduced the same logic just at scale. So if “Patriarchy” was a single-axis law of gravity, intersectionality represents feminism’s attempt to construct its own Unified Field Theory. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 12/03/26 04:38 AM |
| 4 | Misandry is systemicAgreed and this is well established in systems theory, which understands the social order as a distributed network of systems. There is no such thing as capital S - Society nor is there a master system, but monocausal explanations have always been popular because they reduce complexity into something coherent and understandable. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 12/03/26 03:54 AM |
| 19 | The Pressure to Be "Interesting"I agree. To be “interesting” by modern standards means to consume. I mean, think about how people introduce themselves. Instead of describing your character, you describe your interests which usually involve spending money. The more experiences, hobbies, and activities you can list, the more interesting you appear. Marx’s idea of commodity fetishism pretty much explain this, where people relate to one another through the objects and services they consume. So “interesting” in this context isn’t a… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 11/03/26 08:20 PM |
| 7 | How to talk with normal leftistYou’re arguing for the academic ideal of feminism and my point was about its operationalized form where the nuance of the theory is replaced with a simplified identity politics version of it. Also, the “fringe” you’re dismissing is the most visible and influential part of the movement. It shapes discourse, public opinion, and thereby policy. This is well-documented, where small but highly motivated groups steer the direction of a movement. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 11/03/26 05:38 AM |
| 195 | NPR podcasters call 2026 the "year of pathetic men." How can we get these organizations to see this is wrong?Imagine a publicly funded outlet producing a segment titled “The Year of Irrational Women” and the immediate backlash and accusations of misogyny and sexism that would follow. “Punching up” is just socially accepted prejudice. It reduces individuals to symbols or stereotypes that people feel free to mock or attack. The logic becomes: if someone represents a powerful group, cruelty toward them is fair game. The problem then isn’t dehumanizing others, but that the “wrong” people were doing it. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 11/03/26 05:09 AM |
| 10 | How to talk with normal leftistThen you get motivated reasoning, where evidence is filtered and interpreted in ways that protect identity and reinforce beliefs. It is a cognitive bias where people accept information that confirms their views while rejecting any contradictory evidence. So why their arguments can sound illogical, irrational, inconsistent, incoherent, etc. is because they’re not following the normal standards of reasoning. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 10/03/26 07:52 PM |
| 16 | How to talk with normal leftistOne of the reasons the left is so divided is not just its use of intersectionality and adoption of standpoint epistemology, but that it claims universal moral principles while not actually practicing universality. The result is that leftism now operates through identity hierarchies that compete to the point that fairness becomes relative rather than universal. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 10/03/26 06:53 PM |
| 9 | How to talk with normal leftistIt’s a provocative take, but the reality of purity tests and moral signaling on the left is hard to ignore. If you question the ideology or fail to acknowledge your “positionality,” then you’re out. And this isn’r just a fringe subculture; it is a shift within the left driven by identity politics and the adoption of standpoint epistemology, where “lived experience” has moved from the margins to the center and become the primary way of interpreting truth. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 10/03/26 03:58 PM |
| 6 | In a latest social media post, the UN laments that gender equality has not been achieved in any country. Plot twist: The UN designed its Gender Inequality Index in such a way that equality cannot be achieved, even in theory.Political scholars call it the Iron Law of Oligarchy, which argues that all complex organizations eventually become controlled by a small group of elites who prioritize preserving their own power. Feminist advocacy has become a career path where the goal is about finding (or inventing) new problems to justify the job. As actual conditions improve, the goalposts shift from legal rights to outcome gaps, and eventually to abstract, invisible inequalities. So if the elites in charge of the UN’s gend… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 10/03/26 03:27 AM |
| 18 | Gates Foundation post for IWD - 4 Fallacies to create a fake image of oppression.This is a good example of how data can be framed to support a particular narrative. First, the infographic is being presented to a largely Western audience, where many people assume the statistics apply directly to their own societies without examining how the numbers are constructed or what is actually being measured. Second, those time-use surveys tend to capture daily, repetitive tasks while ignoring the less regular, time-intensive tasks like home maintenance, vehicle repair, yard work, home… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 09/03/26 10:21 PM |
| 38 | How to talk with normal leftistThe “reasonable middle” exists mostly offline, so online it can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack especially given how outrage and the most radical views are rewarded and therefore most visible. So to answer OP’s question, I’d search out communities where people are discussing tradeoffs, not moralizing issues, asking for evidence, and engaging in longer-form discussions. That’s where you’re most likely to find people interested in actual discussion and debate. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 09/03/26 06:47 AM |
| 47 | How to talk with normal leftistI consider myself politically homeless at the moment. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 09/03/26 06:08 AM |
| 106 | How to talk with normal leftistYou have to pass the purity test which means accepting the sin of being male, confessing your privilege, performing penance by apologizing for your identity and all of the harm it has caused, then only after enough atonement might the group grant you absolution as “one of the good ones.” Also remember that data and evidence are secondary to the group’s morals and beliefs, as “lived experience” is viewed as absolute truth. So as an outsider, your role isn’t to question the narrative but to confir… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 09/03/26 05:56 AM |
| 71 | Question about the influence of online discourse on women's perception of dangerIt’s the gender safety paradox. Society assumes men have the agency to defend themselves, while women are assumed to be vulnerable and in need of protection. It’s also worth noting the “shadow of sexual assault” hypothesis, which posits that women’s fear of crime is shaped by the underlying fear of sexual violence. That perception is amplified by media coverage, advocacy campaigns, and culture at large. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 08/03/26 06:27 AM |
| 5 | Feminism functions as a massive Motte and BaileyRadFem and Leftism cooperate politically because intersectionality allows them to do so without either side conceding on what system is the primary driver of oppression. My point is simply that if gender oppression is treated as the primary axis, then class solidarity becomes unstable which has been a long-standing debate within the left. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 07/03/26 02:48 AM |
| 4 | Feminism functions as a massive Motte and BaileyRadical Feminism and Leftism are built on two different and competing definitions of oppression. RadFems argue that gender is the most fundamental class, while Leftists argue that class conflict is the primary source of oppression. By labeling 50% of the working class as the enemy, RadFems effectively undermine the worker solidarity required for Leftist politics. They also shift the analysis away from material class relations toward an abstract system of power that operates everywhere and nowher… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 07/03/26 12:01 AM |
| 28 | "Women can be violent perpetrators & men/boys can be innocent victims. Too many people are mistaking the Epstein files to mean all men are inherently evil rapists when the problems are much deeper/broader. unlimited power/money turns ppl “evil”. They see others as play things."It’s an offshoot of the “Women-Are-Wonderful” effect. Because women are widely associated with nurturing and moral goodness, behavior that contradicts that expectation creates cognitive dissonance, which gets resolved in one of two ways: Change the belief and acknowledge that women aren’t always wonderful. Keep the belief and attribute the behavior to context or circumstance (e.g., “she was under a lot of stress,” “she must have been provoked,” etc.). | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 06/03/26 11:41 PM |
| 41 | Mind the Gaps: Global Attitudes Toward Gender Equality in 2026“Gender studies” → about women “Gender equality” → women’s outcomes “Gender violence” → violence towards women I agree and it’s a good example of concept capture. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 06/03/26 07:26 PM |
| 27 | Why opinion of highly regarded academicians means almost nothing. (Read “insert feminist author”) Looking into feminist arguments: Part 1?There is a prevailing belief in advocacy that empathy is a zero-sum resource, so the group perceived as the “biggest victim” receives the largest share of sympathy, funding, and legal/institutional protections. Why feminism has been especially successful at cornering this “empathy market” is because of the patriarchy, which unifies many unrelated issues into this universal story of female victimhood. The concept of “hegemonic masculinity,” along with similar patriarchy mythology, works to launde… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 06/03/26 04:02 AM |
| 33 | Male victimization rates of IPV are far higher than people thinkThe truth is that if society fully acknowledged male victimhood, the economic costs would be enormous. Thousands of male-specific shelters would require funding. Police, judges, and social workers would need retraining, and employers, schools, and community organizations would have to adopt new policies. Making this happen would also require significant cultural change. Masculinity would need to be redefined and the empathy gap would have to be addressed. It would also mean abandoning gendered m… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 04/03/26 09:27 AM |
| 53 | Toxic Masculinity Scale (Exposing Bias Against Men in Research Literature)It's because modern social theory defines traditional masculinity as "toxic”, so a woman may believe in the idea of vulnerability while still being attracted to traits associated with dominance. That conflict between her conscious beliefs and unconscious desires creates cognitive dissonance or a sense of shame that she can’t resolve internally, so she projects onto the man by shaming him which lets her maintain a “clean” conscience while still reaping the “dirty” rewards of traditional masculini… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 03/03/26 08:14 PM |
| 8 | Feminism functions as a massive Motte and BaileyIf my analysis reflects my own psychology, show me how, and I will consider your argument if it is well explained. And if my points are incorrect, refute them directly with counter evidence, and I will revise my position if the reasoning is sound. Right now, however, your argument rests on rhetoric. Your appeal to feminist pluralism as proof that it is not faith-like does not negate the rituals of purity that are commonplace in mainstream feminism. Mentioning other movements is irrelevant unless… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 03/03/26 06:10 PM |
| 7 | Feminism functions as a massive Motte and BaileyThanks, I appreciate the comment and agree that radfems can be viewed as zealots. Patriarchy serves as their original sin, and like a zealot who believes humanity has fallen, radfems see society as irredeemably patriarchal. Because “sin” is everywhere, nothing is neutral, meaning that every act is interpreted as either resisting or supporting oppression. Purity is therefore measured by adherence to the dogma, and devotion is expressed through constant policing of oneself and others. Heresy can t… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 02/03/26 10:15 PM |
| 77 | Feminism functions as a massive Motte and BaileyFeminism, at its core, is a secular faith. It isn’t a political theory since it has no stable definition of justice. Liberal feminists frame it as equal opportunity, while intersectional feminists understand it through a spreadsheet of who is oppressed and by how much, and then you’ve got radical feminists who believe the only acceptable solution is to dismantle everything. If it were a scientific theory, it would generate predictions that could, in principle, be disproven. But its core claims a… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 01/03/26 08:06 AM |
| 46 | The psychology behind society’s fixation on incelsYeah, it’s a pretty effective way to end a discussion. Calling someone an incel works like calling someone a Nazi, it’s meant to disqualify or discredit the person. It seems like the moral defense is such a common tactic nowadays, which makes sense since it requires no evidence and offers the illusion of power. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 27/02/26 07:32 AM |
| 39 | There are 3 ways feminists usually use to justify thier cakism when it comes to male gender roles.Feminist rhetoric is primarily prescriptive (what men “should” do) rather than descriptive (what is empirically true). Morals replace evidence, with appeals to what is “right” standing in for proof. Truth is constructed rather than tested, which is central to feminist epistemology and puts it at odds with science. So at baseline, feminist rhetoric has the appearance of logic and reason, but at worse - especially among mainstream feminists - it is a coping framework through which people project t… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 27/02/26 06:52 AM |
| 123 | The psychology behind society’s fixation on incelsPeople are deeply invested in the idea of a just world. Incels symbolize a threat to that belief, which people therefore feel compelled to protect. So they attack the group in order to restore fairness and reaffirm the belief. In effect, incels are society’s scapegoats whom people project their fears and frustrations onto. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 27/02/26 05:26 AM |
| 5 | How hyperbole drives division and how to recognize derailingFeminism is a leaderless system, meaning there’s no central authority to define boundaries, set standards, and clarify what actually represents the movement. It resembles a religion without clergy, organized around shared beliefs and moral claims about the world. Its theory is treated as sacred, so dissent is often treated like heresy. Radfems end up filling the vacuum where their role becomes enforcing conformity and making sure the doctrine remains intact. In online spaces, radfems are loud an… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 16/02/26 04:03 AM |
| 15 | Dear Feminist Lurkers,For readers, it is important to note that this is a characteristic response. When feminism and its core theories are challenged on their analytical or explanatory power, they are rarely defended with evidence or careful reasoning. Instead, they are defended through moral language and us-versus-them rhetoric. This is not how serious explanatory frameworks operate. If feminism were primarily about equality, it would welcome stronger arguments. If it were about reform, it would refine its models in… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 09/02/26 10:12 PM |
| 18 | Dear Feminist Lurkers,Patriarchy as a framework is factually misleading. Contemporary societies do not operate through a unified, top-down system in which “men” as a class dominate “women” as a class. The theory rests on an explicitly zero-sum conception of power: if women gain, men must lose; if men resist, it is because they fear the loss of dominance; if equality feels uncomfortable, that’s because they’re entitled. Ironically, this mirrors the very dominance logic it claims to oppose. For these and other reasons,… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 09/02/26 04:31 PM |
| 4 | Valerie Solanas' SCUM manifesto is crucial to understanding misandryI think feminism can feel deeply validating to people who have experienced harm by men. There’s appeal in being seen and believed, and while it can feel healing, validation alone doesn’t resolve anything. Trauma research consistently shows that healing happens through integration, which requires constant self-examination where you’re not only about processing pain, but learning to restoring a fair, humane way of relating. Feminism seems to moves in the opposite direction. It abstracts pain into … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 06/02/26 09:20 AM |
| 26 | This video is one of the best examples of the blatant double standard around men versus women being abusedIt violates the basic moral logic people claim to care about. I mean, the standard should be pretty straightforward: controlling someone’s private life is wrong, regardless of who does it. But instead, people rely on a heuristic where “male control” gets coded as threatening and “female control” gets coded as vulnerability. So the same behavior is judged by two different standards and given two different moral meanings. It infantilizes women by treating their controlling behavior as something th… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 06/02/26 06:12 AM |
| 4 | Why Selective Bigotry and Male Self-Deprecation Hurt the MovementI will add that the cheapest, fastest way to signal status (at least online) is through moral language. Debating facts takes time, evidence, and effort. Moralizing is immediate and doesn’t require much work, because once you label someone as “bad,” people rally around you. And since status is relative, lowering someone else’s automatically raises your own, which explains why disagreements so quickly shift to questions of character: once you suggest that someone is biased, selfish, ignorant, or h… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 05/02/26 03:19 AM |
| 15 | Why Are Male Gender Roles More Resistant to Change?Both gender roles matter, but they haven’t been treated the same when people fall short. When women fail to meet expectations, it is often contextualized; when men fail to meet expectations, it’s more often moralized. Men’s role has long been treated as disposable, based on the assumption that men could always recover. That isn’t the case anymore, which is why your comparison is beside the point. It collapses two different failure dynamics into a false equivalence. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 23/01/26 04:54 PM |
| 73 | Why Are Male Gender Roles More Resistant to Change?Male gender roles are resistant to change because society depends on them to function. The culture has been able to moralize men who fall out of expected roles because, for most of modern history, there were still pathways for men to re-enter usefulness through work, family, community, or nation. That’s no longer reliably true. Work is no longer stable, far fewer men are getting married and starting families, and many of the institutions that once absorbed struggling men have weakened or disappe… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 23/01/26 07:33 AM |
| 3 | Opinion: Men are terrible at advocating for themselves. We have to change this.Misandry doesn’t have to take the form of explicit hatred or a stated goal of female supremacy to be internal to feminism. It is internal when a framework’s core assumptions consistently produce negative treatment of a group, even in the absence of hostile intent. For misandry to be genuinely external to feminism, feminist theory would prohibit anti-male generalizations, reject collective blame of men, and treat male victimhood as fully legitimate. In practice, this does not happen. When a frame… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 23/01/26 06:31 AM |
| 15 | Opinion: Men are terrible at advocating for themselves. We have to change this.I agree. Feminist advocacy has spent decades shaping the public’s moral imagination so that when a woman tells her story, her victimhood is assumed and she is met with belief, validation, and praise for her courage. When a man tells his story, his victimhood is not assumed but treated as something he has to prove. He knows he may not be believed and may be judged or punished for telling the truth. There are risks and costs involved, and choosing to speak anyway is what makes it an act of courage… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 23/01/26 05:29 AM |
| 28 | Opinion: Men are terrible at advocating for themselves. We have to change this.People need to understand that advocacy is not operating in a fair marketplace of ideas. Feminism didn’t succeed simply because it made better arguments; it grew inside elite institutions and its claims were seen as credible not because they were proven, but because they confirmed beliefs society already held about gender. Men’s advocacy operates under the opposite conditions. Its claims often challenge prevailing assumptions (that men already have power, already benefit, are morally suspect) an… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 23/01/26 01:16 AM |
| 32 | Why discourse in feminism is important to LWMAsDiscourse is obviously shaped by gatekeepers within media and academia, but most downstream content creators aren’t consciously advancing an agenda so much as responding to incentives. What we call feminism today is mostly the product of convergence and feedback. That said, and at the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I can’t help but wonder whether intelligence agencies have taken an interest in feminist discourse. Gender ideology is such a geopolitically useful tool that it would be… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 21/01/26 07:43 AM |
| 2 | How I avoid spiraling into shame when hearing feminist critiques of menOk, I misread your claim and responded at the level of the mechanism (feminist ideology) rather than the conditions (academia and progressive culture). So I agree the problem isn't reducible to feminism and that those conditions are what allow feminism to operate. I think many people, myself included, focus on the mechanism because that’s where power is most visible while the conditions remain in the background like fish in water. That said, it probably makes the most sense to view this as a con… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 20/01/26 08:23 PM |
| 7 | How I avoid spiraling into shame when hearing feminist critiques of menHey u/Karmaze! I’ve seen you pop up a lot in recent discussions and just want to say that I value your contributions. I agree with your point. When feminists say “that isn’t real power,” what they’re really doing is avoiding accountability for the power they’re exercising. Feminist ideology defines itself as powerless, and an ideology that claims no power never has to answer for the negative outcomes it helps create. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 20/01/26 05:50 PM |
| 7 | How I avoid spiraling into shame when hearing feminist critiques of menHey u/SpicyMarshmellow, I’m really sorry you and your son went through that. What stands out most is how alone you were when you finally reached out for help, and how the systems meant to help failed to take your situation seriously. That kind of response can be incredibly isolating, especially when you’re trying to do the right thing and protect your child. Your story is a reminder of why so many people are questioning the dominant feminist framing around abuse and power. When institutions oper… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 20/01/26 05:18 PM |
| 15 | How I avoid spiraling into shame when hearing feminist critiques of menGenuine question: why the emphasis on “material power”? When I answered earlier, I was pointing to how feminist frameworks shape policy and norms. Cultural power becomes material once it is operationalized through institutions and produces real-world consequences. This matters because feminism itself has long argued that power is not limited to property ownership or wealth, but also includes institutional and normative control. Narrowing “material power” to wealth seems inconsistent with feminis… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 20/01/26 02:58 PM |
| 12 | LWMA and Internationality QuestionA real intersectional analysis would ask “is this about class, gender, race, or something else… and which variables matter most here?” It would test different explanations against each other to find the most accurate account of what’s driving an outcome. Intersectional feminism begins by assuming that gendered power is always relevant. So it doesn’t ask whether gender explains an outcome, but where gender shows up within the outcome. This means class, race, sexuality, and other axes are only all… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 20/01/26 01:29 AM |
| 39 | How I avoid spiraling into shame when hearing feminist critiques of menFeminist theories of gendered harm have directly shaped Title IX enforcement, moving it toward a single-investigator model that biases investigations and undermines due process. Likewise, the dominant feminist framing of DV as male-perpetrated and female-victim has guided arrest policies and shelter access. Feminist concepts like “hostile environment” and “impact over intent” are built into workplace policy, while feminist assumptions about caregiving and vulnerability have shaped custody norms … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 19/01/26 05:18 PM |
| 3 | Dramas Keep Showing Us Hapless Men — and Hypercompetent Women (NYTimes)Agreed. Well said. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 19/01/26 04:39 PM |
| 37 | How I avoid spiraling into shame when hearing feminist critiques of menMembers of this community are not attacking a vulnerable group; they are questioning an influential belief system that affects their lives. “Punching down” would only make sense if feminism has no power or is some sort of marginalized identity. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 19/01/26 04:36 PM |
| 78 | Dramas Keep Showing Us Hapless Men — and Hypercompetent Women (NYTimes)Rather than grappling with gender norms or gender ideology, the author waves it away as a response to authoritarianism and “the way the world feels” as if it just fell out of the sky. Most people don’t realize that cultural and lifestyle media exists largely to launder trends by making them seem normal and inevitable rather than deliberately shaped. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 18/01/26 11:03 PM |
| 5 | Traditionalism and feminism: two sides of the same coinIn a sense, feminism and traditionalism are rival moral stories built on the same narrow historical view of gender roles. They take the male provider model and treat it as representative of human history, despite the fact that it is largely a post–Industrial Revolution, 19th–20th century Western phenomenon. Before that, society relied heavily on shared provision. Women regularly contributed 40–60% of calories in foraging societies, often more reliably than men’s hunting. In agrarian economies, h… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 17/01/26 04:07 PM |
| 55 | Feminism doesn't apply intersectionality correctly when it comes to menIntersectional feminists are paper generals who issue claims from behind a smokescreen of axes. The more axes they add, the thicker the smoke and the harder it is for critics to challenge the framework. They claim pluralism, but that isn’t what they actually practice. In intersectional analysis, different axes compete with one another. In intersectional feminism, gender is the privileged axis and all other axes serve it. Gender versus class becomes gendered class. Gender versus race becomes gend… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 17/01/26 07:24 AM |
| 68 | Misandrist and feminist loreIronically, feminist literature explicitly argues that men are socialized to suppress emotion so the stereotype doesn’t even align with its own theory. Edit: What really exposes the absurdity of the “wife as therapist” trope is that feminist literature routinely points to men being stoic. Yet in the same breath, they’re accused of burdening women with their emotions? Men are expected to be the rock in the relationship, so that means listen, validate, reassure, and be steady. That is literally ba… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 16/01/26 08:27 AM |
| 6 | "Feminism = Gender Equality" Is Just False By DefinitionAlright, let’s use domestic violence as an example. Feminist theory frames domestic violence primarily as an expression of patriarchal power, of men exerting control over women. That interpretation is plausible and explains some cases, but not the phenomenon as a whole. Feminism, however, has a habit of promoting interpretations as if they were causal explanations, and then using them as the basis for policy. In the case of domestic violence, feminism has successfully positioned an interpretive … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 16/01/26 07:50 AM |
| 6 | Forms of feminism have the same fundamental problems, often just to different extentsIntersectional feminism just adds more axes so the smoke and mirrors are harder to see through. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 16/01/26 05:23 AM |
| 3 | Feminists Co-Opted the Power Dynamics of ClassI know that many social frameworks are not strictly falsifiable, so feminism isn’t unique in that regard. Where feminism differs is that it is not defeasible once operationalized. Most frameworks that guide policy incur a cost to being wrong. The model loses authority until it is revised or replaced. Feminism does not incur that cost. Failures do not constrain the framework; they are absorbed in ways that leave the core assumption of gendered power intact. To be precise, I’m not claiming that ge… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 16/01/26 02:52 AM |
| 24 | There is a highly used argument - "men do not deserve empathy unconditionally because they are the cause of all violent crimes, slavery, terrorism, genocides, wars, destruction etc.... they are mostly selfish, greedy", also - being less co-operative, empathetic......When who you are matters more than what you say, reason has left the room. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/01/26 10:12 PM |
| 10 | "Feminism = Gender Equality" Is Just False By DefinitionFeminism is an annoying conundrum because it wants to explain society, but when asked to defend those explanations it can’t without abandoning its core assumptions, so it retreats into “oh, this is just an interpretation.” The problem is that interpretations don’t normally set policy, yet feminism plays a shell game acting as an explanation when it needs power and an interpretation when it needs cover. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/01/26 04:13 PM |
| 12 | "Feminism = Gender Equality" Is Just False By DefinitionIntersectionality is pretty weak at explaining causes. It can show patterns across groups, but it can’t reliably explain what caused a specific outcome. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/01/26 06:59 AM |
| 24 | "Feminism = Gender Equality" Is Just False By DefinitionI mostly agree with your conclusion, but I think the issue isn’t definitional so much as epistemic. In most areas of analysis, evidence is used to test and limit theory. In power epistemologies, like feminism, that relationship is reversed: evidence is used to confirm the theory rather than constrain it. That’s a problem because explanation depends on falsification. If a theory can’t be proven wrong, it can’t really tell us anything specific. It can point to patterns, but it has little to no exp… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/01/26 06:48 AM |
| 6 | Feminists Co-Opted the Power Dynamics of ClassWhat sets feminism apart is that gender is never allowed to stop being the explanation. Boys fall behind in school? That’s the patriarchy or toxic masculinity. Women earn less on average? That’s gendered expectations or discrimination. Men die in dangerous jobs? That’s masculine risk-taking or male disposability. Men commit more violent crime? That’s male aggression or entitlement. Across domains, alternative explanations are absorbed. Class becomes gendered class. Choice becomes constrained cho… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/01/26 01:54 AM |
| 9 | Feminists Co-Opted the Power Dynamics of ClassI think we’re talking past each other because my questions about feminism are methodological and epistemic, while you’re defending feminism from within the framework rather than examining the framework itself. In my view, you are treating patriarchy as both descriptively real and normatively justified. My point is that you can’t have it both ways. Either it’s an explanatory model, in which case it needs to be testable and open to falsification, or it’s an advocacy framework that uses analysis to… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 14/01/26 04:17 PM |
| 14 | Misandry on BlueSkyThis pattern of institutional neglect isn’t new, but it has become more visible because institutions have become a lot more involved and are training staff in frameworks that emphasize harm to girls/women and risk from boys/men, and support systems have expanded selectively as a result. The prevailing message is that boys and men don’t receive help because helping them would “reinforce power,” so the neglect is reframed as something justified rather than problematic. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 14/01/26 07:57 AM |
| 3 | Feminists Co-Opted the Power Dynamics of ClassLol, from u/TheGuyWhoTalksShit | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 14/01/26 02:48 AM |
| 18 | Feminists Co-Opted the Power Dynamics of ClassFirst, I want to acknowledge and appreciate you coming into this community and engaging in good faith. I mentioned this in another thread, but it’s worth repeating because this kind of engagement is rare and genuinely valuable. That said, my concern here isn’t whether feminist theory can in principle distinguish gender from class. It’s that feminism was never designed as a purely descriptive framework. From the outset, it combined analysis with advocacy and moral purpose. That moral commitment g… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 14/01/26 02:42 AM |
| 86 | Feminists Co-Opted the Power Dynamics of ClassClass is a material hierarchy and is defined by its relationship to capital and resources. Men and women are not classes. Men don’t collectively own resources, and women don’t collectively lack them. A man does not gain material power simply by being male in the way a landlord gains power by owning property or a corporation gains power by controlling labor. The core problem with feminism (in its dominant form) is that instead of asking hard questions like who owns what, it constructs a false nar… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 13/01/26 11:11 PM |
| 8 | Benevolent sexism is female privilege, and toxic masculinity is internalized misandry/sexismSo to clarify: I’m making a practical claim, not a theoretical one. When feminist frameworks are applied outside of academia, they consistently generate the same moral interpretation: men are treated as the default holders of power and responsibility, while women are treated as the default victims. That consistency suggests the framework carries an internal bias that shapes interpretation. Comparisons to misuse by other groups are beside the point. I’m not arguing that any theory can’t be misuse… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 12/01/26 09:59 PM |
| 5 | Benevolent sexism is female privilege, and toxic masculinity is internalized misandry/sexismI second this, and I’m genuinely glad to see a feminist willing to engage in good-faith dialogue. This kind of exchange is uncommon online and refreshing when it happens. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 12/01/26 09:16 PM |
| 6 | Benevolent sexism is female privilege, and toxic masculinity is internalized misandry/sexismThis. Most people aren’t academics, and they’re not going to use academic concepts with the same level nuance and care. And when an idea enters everyday language, its real-world effects matter a whole lot more than the definition it started with. What I find especially ironic is that feminist discourse is often very attuned to how language can harm women, but far less willing to apply the same standard to men, instead adding layers of theory and explanations to protect the framework than to obje… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 12/01/26 09:04 PM |
| 22 | Benevolent sexism is female privilege, and toxic masculinity is internalized misandry/sexismI think we’re evaluating feminism by different standards. You’re judging it by what it claims to be and what it intends to do, while I’m judging it by what it reliably does once it leaves academia. Whatever the theory allows in principle, the version that actually circulates through media, institutions, and culture consistently treats men as the default power group and interprets harm through that lens. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 12/01/26 07:39 PM |
| 22 | Benevolent sexism is female privilege, and toxic masculinity is internalized misandry/sexismMy critique isn’t about what feminism can be in theory, but about what the dominant framework produces in practice and that looks like this: men are treated as the default power group while harm is interpreted as something men cause or benefit from. So while you’re right that a more nuanced form of analysis is possible, that doesn’t resolve the issue. The question isn’t whether a better version can exist, but whether the framework is stable under ordinary use. Any tool that fails under normal us… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 12/01/26 05:15 PM |
| 36 | Benevolent sexism is female privilege, and toxic masculinity is internalized misandry/sexismIn science, a theory is only as strong as its ability to be proven wrong. In feminism, there is no possible outcome that counts as evidence against its oppressor–oppressed framework. Instead of revising its core assumptions, the framework expands through additional sub-theories and qualifiers. When a theory responds to contradiction by growing more complex (rather than self-correcting), it stops being scientific and becomes ideological. I find it telling that feminist rhetoric often responds to … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 12/01/26 02:38 PM |
| 17 | Vent: I am tired of the widespread normalized hate we are facing as men and being expected to just shrug it off.What’s helped me is accepting that the world isn’t fair (and that sexism goes both ways, despite the denial around it) and that the internet is not representative of how people actually think or behave. This means limiting time online (and with media in general) for basic mental hygiene. Constant exposure to something unhealthy is damaging. The other piece is focusing on what I can control. For me, that means building real-world relationships where I’m treated like a human being. Or just not eng… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 08/01/26 05:27 PM |
| 11 | If you're going around calling other men "cucks" and "betas", you're part of the problem.Fair enough. I agree there should be space to vent. I also think it’s worth mentioning that this community tends to work best when posts give others something specific to respond to. If ten people point at ten different problems at the same time, there’s going to be a whole lot of talking past each other. But if you pick one or two clear points and say, “this is what I want to discuss,” then people know where to focus. That makes it easier for people to add insight or to agree/disagree in a prod… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 08/01/26 05:35 AM |
| 44 | If you're going around calling other men "cucks" and "betas", you're part of the problem.I think this post means well, but it’s not really asking anything or making a clear argument. It feels more like venting than something the community can respond to. Edit: I suggest a TL;DR that clearly says what you want feedback or debate on. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 08/01/26 05:06 AM |
| 18 | I hate that you can’t talk about misandry in leftist spacesIt’s all about controlling the narrative. An ideology starts with a belief (e.g., women are oppressed and men are oppressors) and everything that follows is forced to fit that belief. Without universal rules, truth becomes whatever protects the ideology. That’s why we see double standards, thought and language policing, weaponized outrage, Kafka traps, and “heads I win, tails you lose” logic. If you’re not allowed to question something, then the only way to keep it alive is to force people to ac… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 07/01/26 05:05 PM |
| 24 | Misandry KillsI find it helpful to think about this in terms of hard power versus soft power. Hard power is direct harm (e.g. hitting, threatening, forcing, or abusing power overtly). It’s visible and concrete, which makes it easy for others to recognize and condemn. Soft power is indirect harm (e.g. shaming, manipulation, lying, or coercion). It’s harder to detect because there’s no immediate or visible injury, and it’s often normalized. Impact varies, but a useful way to frame it is that hard power breaks b… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 06/01/26 06:35 PM |
| 76 | Feminist assumptions about men are to blame for half of the rise in anti-feminismFeminist ideology treats stereotyping men as acceptable, even virtuous, in ways that would be immediately condemned if applied to any other group. That’s why anti-feminism is on the rise because people don’t tolerate open prejudice. I think it’s worth mentioning that the appeal of feminism is that it offers a simple story for why life feels unfair. Instead of asking “why is life hard?”which has no simple answer, you’re told “life is hard because someone did this to you.” When you feel wronged, y… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 06/01/26 08:25 AM |
| 39 | How UN manipulates its Gender Development Index to hide an uncomfortable truthI think it’s important to remember that any ideological organization is not primarily asking, “What is happening?” but rather, “How can this be framed to advance our agenda?” Whether it’s UN Women, the NRA, the Brookings Institute, or the WEF, the underlying logic is the same: they exist to justify and preserve their own relevance. Take UN Women as an example. Instead of starting with the data and then drawing conclusions, it begins with a conclusion - that gender inequality primarily harms wome… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 06/01/26 03:27 AM |
| 3 | What are the problems with UN Women?If you think you’re always right, you stop listening. When you stop listening, you stop learning. And when no one ever corrects you, you start believing you can’t be wrong. That belief is what arrogance is. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 05/01/26 06:06 AM |
| 62 | Misogyny, misandry and why one will always worsen the other beyond just retaliation logicMen are told that their suffering either isn’t real or if it is then it’s their fault. This chronic invalidation creates grief from the loss of: dignity when your mocked for your pain fairness when you realize the double standards belonging when you’re excluded for speaking out trust when the world repeatedly fails to respond hope when there is no clear path to justice Normally, grief follows a sequence: Something bad happened → others acknowledge it → meaning is made → healing begins But when s… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 05/01/26 01:26 AM |
| 9 | How false accusations create a system that fails both victims and the accusedIt’s like if 1% of people have a contagious disease, you don’t treat the other 99% like they’re infected. You isolate and treat the people actually spreading harm. Feminism uses collective guilt to punish the many, while those who actually do harm are neither meaningfully deterred nor held individually accountable. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 04/01/26 06:25 AM |
| 83 | What are the problems with UN Women?It’s also worth mentioning that the UN name confers credibility, which dramatically amplifies the reach of UN Women. And because the organization has effectively captured the category of “gender” to mean women (rather than men, women, boys, girls, and how society treats all of them), any policy, funding, or research labeled a “gender issue” automatically centers women and excludes men and boys by definition. I repeat this often, but it bears saying: feminism resembles racism in that it pre-sorts… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 04/01/26 05:32 AM |
| 27 | How false accusations create a system that fails both victims and the accusedLying is low-risk and high-reward for bad actors, and controlling the narrative is how they cash in. Power comes from getting people on your side so once you’ve convinced them you’re the victim, then they’ll handle all of arguing, the defending, and the punishing for you. I think victimhood works so well because when people believe they’re hurting someone, their instinct is to stop or protect the person claiming harm. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 03/01/26 03:26 PM |
| 3 | On Toxic ShameLol, I call it identity math. People plug in who’s involved and run the ideology calculator to determine the moral outcome. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 01/01/26 07:01 AM |
| 6 | On Toxic ShameThat makes sense. You’re saying this isn’t just feminism, but a broader way of thinking where people judge actions by who did them instead of what happened. i.e. cruelty can be minimized if the “right” person does it and victims can be ignored if they belong to the “wrong” group. I think feminism is especially relevant here because it has institutionalized this way of thinking. You see it in media coverage, in how workplaces and campuses decide who to believe, and in research and policy that sta… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 31/12/25 02:32 PM |
| 12 | On Toxic ShameFor a system to be just, the same rules have to apply to everyone. Harm is judged based on what happened, not who did it. But under feminist frameworks, people are sorted first and actions are judged second. Women are assumed to be victims and men assumed to be perpetrators, and those assumptions decide how the facts are read. Why feminism puts so much effort into defending this narrative is because of leverage. Whoever controls the narrative controls how the problem is seen and who has power. T… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 31/12/25 03:51 AM |
| 54 | On Toxic ShameMuch of feminist rhetoric functions through shame: not “this action caused harm,” but “this kind of person is a problem.” And once harm is framed as something you are rather than something you did, there is no way to make things right. That’s why so many men eventually stop engaging. Not because they “can’t handle accountability,” but because accountability normally comes with a path forward. This doesn’t. It’s a double bind. The rhetoric creates shame, then mocks and blames you for having it. I… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 30/12/25 07:37 AM |
| 4 | Swiss voters reject mandatory national service for women. While the same for men is ok. Why is this happening?So the logic goes like this: “What I endured made me who I am.” “If it was wrong, then my life was wrong.” Because that conclusion is unbearable, it gets reframed as: “It was necessary. Therefore, others should endure it too.” In this view, suffering is noble, and the amount of pain you endure becomes a measure of self-worth. I think the irony is that this mindset creates the illusion of strength and fairness, when really it’s just a form of cowardice. Rather than face and accept the injustice o… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 17/12/25 06:41 AM |
| 19 | Peer-reviewed study concludes that misandry is“false”You’re right, and I wish I could edit the title because it can come across the wrong way. The paper isn’t denying that misandry exists; it’s specifically targeting the stereotype that feminists hate men, which the authors argue is false. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 28/11/25 06:09 AM |
| 1 | This is what I don't get as a guy: Yes, men face issues. But why deny that women face discrimination and violence at the hands of men? Aren't you sort of doing the same thing you claim feminists do?It’s important to distinguish collective pain from collective guilt. If your father was an alcoholic who abandoned the family, you and your siblings all feel the impact of what he did. That’s collective pain. Being treated as if you were responsible for his drinking or neglect, however, would be collective guilt. Similarly, women share the effects of sexual violence because the risk and fear of it are experienced together. This is collective pain. Blaming all men for these crimes, however, would… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 04/09/25 01:44 AM |
| 10 | What theory have you read?If a movement doesn’t show that it values your concerns, you’re unlikely to see its ideas as worth your time. Edit: Feminism in theory is about equality and mutual liberation, but in practice it has centered almost exclusively on women’s rights. Feminist scholarship often treats men’s struggles as side effects of women’s struggles, and worth addressing only insofar as they serve women’s interests, rather than as problems that merit attention in their own right. There is a smaller body of academi… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/08/25 11:28 AM |
| 6 | What theory have you read?The problem with cultural relativism is that it extends perspective into the claim that truth itself is entirely culture-bound, framing appeals to the “universal” as instruments of cultural dominance. In this view, applying any shared standard is seen as imposing one culture on another, so each worldview ends up in its own bubble where ideas cannot be meaningfully compared and “knowing” becomes a closed, self-referential process with no path to common ground on matters of fact. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/08/25 10:27 AM |
| 3 | Considering the Male Disposability Hypothesis — Maria KouloglouThanks for the correction. You’re right that natural selection operates at the level of individual fitness, not for the “good of the species.” That said, I think we’re actually making complementary points. What I meant is that natural selection tends to tolerate greater male loss. Losing a fertile female reduces the population’s reproductive potential more than losing a male, especially in species where a few males can father many offspring. This helps explain why traits like aggression, competi… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 06/08/25 08:28 PM |
| 11 | Considering the Male Disposability Hypothesis — Maria KouloglouMale disposability is based a lot in reproductive strategies. The sex that invests less in offspring is less “protected” by evolutionary pressures, meaning each individual male (whose primary contribution is genetic material) is less critical to species survival than each individual female (whose contributions are more costly, e.g. gestation, nursing, child-rearing.) Since fewer males are required to sustain population growth, nature could afford to “spend” them. Thus, men were selected for high… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 06/08/25 04:42 AM |
| 16 | By age four, I'd already learned to hide my feelingsThe claim that “men don’t need to be emotional” ignores a basic reality: men are emotional. The issue isn’t whether men have emotions, but whether they’re taught to recognize and express them in healthy ways. Also, the Stoics didn’t believe in eliminating emotion. Strength, in their view, meant facing your emotions without being ruled by them. It’s easy to latch onto the aesthetic of Stoicism - appearing calm, detached, and unaffected - but that’s a shallow imitation of the philosophy. It reduce… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/07/25 05:20 PM |
| 2 | Young men on both sides feel the same way in feminismCritical theory is like an MRI, which shows where the problem is but doesn’t tell you how to fix it. That’s its limitation. Without a framework for testing solutions and measuring outcomes, it remains a descriptive tool. Progress depends on methods that can be applied, evaluated, and revised. That’s where science and reason come in. Critical theory can inform that process, but it isn’t, on its own, an engine of change. I think a lot of the opinions in this community are reacting to feminism as i… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 23/07/25 06:01 AM |
| 23 | Young men on both sides feel the same way in feminismMuch of feminist theory (like a lot of critical theories) distrusts science and argues that objectivity is an illusion created by those in power to give their ideas the appearance of truth. The logic goes like this: those in control define what counts as knowledge and call it “truth” to protect their dominance. In this view, truth isn’t discovered but constructed. It’s something imposed by those with power, so what gets called “objective” or “scientific” is really just the dominant group’s world… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 20/07/25 04:14 PM |
| 25 | Why do rich men want other men to think our masculinity is under threat?The short answer? Control. The rich and powerful know that identity can be weaponized to keep people divided. If you’re a billionaire, the last thing you want is poor and working-class men realizing that you are the one keeping their wages low and jobs insecure. But if you convince them that, in this case, their manhoood is under attack, you give them a different enemy. Masculinity becomes the perfect distraction because it’s personal and men fear losing it because they’ve been taught that their… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 17/07/25 05:28 AM |
| 52 | The paradox of the male loneliness epidemic.And framing men’s issues like they’re self-inflicted while women’s are structural is just lazy thinking. When men are doing well, they’re cast as beneficiaries of patriarchy. But the moment they struggle, the script flips: “That’s on you. Be less toxic. Open up. Try harder.” You can’t have it both ways: either the system shapes everyone, or your analysis is just bias. The result is a kind of performative feminism that drapes itself in the language of systems and oppression, while framing harm as… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 15/07/25 07:53 AM |
| 2 | Is there anything that makes you feel you have a male/masculine identity?Most commonly, “man” refers to adult human males, so those with XY chromosomes, male genitalia, and secondary sex traits like facial hair, greater muscle mass, deeper voice, etc. Manhood, on the other hand, isn’t just about having a male body but how you see yourself (gender identity), how others see you (social role), and how you move through the world (lived experience). For example, a trans woman may have been assigned male at birth but identifies and lives as a woman so calling her a man ign… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 12/07/25 06:17 PM |
| 2 | Fackchecker's Guide: How to Combat Misinformation About Male RapeReally solid work. I’d just add that terms like “rape” and “made to penetrate” are used somewhat interchangeably, though they refer to distinct legal categories and are recorded separately in most datasets. Clarifying this would strengthen the argument without adding much length. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 10/07/25 02:27 AM |
| 4 | "The Millenial Shift": Millennial SATrends Are Drastically Different Than Previous GenerationsYou make a fair point - my original phrasing may have been too charitable. I don’t disagree that much of mainstream feminism, both online and institutional, functions as “woman good, man bad.” And you’re right to push back on the idea that the presence of more nuanced feminist scholars somehow absolves the movement at large from criticism To be clear, I was focusing on a specific brand of feminism - post-structural - which tends to deconstruct binary categories and allow for more nuance. But tha… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 08/07/25 02:33 PM |
| 15 | Societal obligationEquating the two doesn’t work because the context of control is entirely different. Conscription removes your autonomy. It mandates your body be used by the state, whether you want it or not. Pregnancy is the result of a personal decision however complicated or pressured that decision might be. Calling them both “societal obligations” glosses over the difference between being forced into something and choosing to take something on. One is coercive by design; the other is voluntary. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 08/07/25 08:01 AM |
| -18 | "The Millenial Shift": Millennial SATrends Are Drastically Different Than Previous GenerationsFeminism is not a single, unified doctrine. It is a broad field with multiple schools of thought. Yes, some feminists are gender-essentialists who frame men as default perpetrators and women as default victims. But they do not represent the full scope of feminist thought. There are feminists who acknowledge that harm is not bound to gender—that women can be abusive and men can be victims. But because these perspectives don’t fit dominant narratives of “men harm, women suffer,” they often get lef… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 08/07/25 07:08 AM |
| 3 | "The Millenial Shift": Millennial SATrends Are Drastically Different Than Previous GenerationsThis post attempts to raise a meaningful critique, but it does so by misrepresenting feminism and relying on claims that are too sweeping to be useful. Yes, the data is concerning. If these trends are correct, then there should be more open conversation about female perpetration and male victimization. No one should be above accountability. That said, I take issue with claims like “we’ve reached a point where women are worse” and “the entire framework of feminism conveniently ignores female perp… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 08/07/25 06:15 AM |
| 4 | Do Women Have Responsibilities To Men?Agreed. My thoughts are: You are accountable for your actions, not for the actions of others who happen to share your gender, race, religion, etc. How collective guilt works is by punishing people for what they are, not what they’ve done. The message isn’t “You did something harmful.” It’s “You are harmful.” In this framing, harm isn’t something you do, but something you represent. Imagine walking up to a man who’s never raised a hand to anyone and saying, “Your presence is harmful.” You’re not … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 08/07/25 05:25 AM |
| 13 | Bad argument I found on twitter that I wanted to share because it pissed me offWell put. I’d add that misogyny is policed far more than misandry because it’s seen as “structurally” dangerous, while misandry is viewed as “punching up.” The assumption is that men hold more power, so expressing contempt toward them is considered more acceptable because it supposedly doesn’t cause the same kind of harm. Obviously that framing ignores the reality that most men are not powerful elites. But it fits more neatly into the grand narrative of “women suffer, men cause the suffering.” S… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 06/07/25 09:33 PM |
| 13 | If women ran the world, there would be no wars. A comforting myth or a subtle essentialist trap?Female leaders often face higher thresholds of credibility in male-dominated systems and overcompensate for their weakness by projecting strength. This was personified by Margaret Thatcher, whose legacy gave rise to the “Iron Lady” effect. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 27/06/25 12:33 PM |
| 172 | Why men don't follow feminism (as a male feminist)Men feel alienated from mainstream feminism because they don’t see their struggles reflected in the conversation. When they raise real problems, the discussion often pivots to how women suffer more. This usually plays out in two ways: Men’s pain is viewed through the lens of female oppression, which implies that their suffering is only legitimate when it reinforces or supports women’s struggles. This framing makes it difficult for men’s issues to be acknowledged on their own terms. The conversat… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 27/06/25 04:19 AM |
| 0 | Is The "Women And Children" Narrative Misandrist?The phrase “women and children” has roots in 19th- and early 20th-century wartime and disaster protocols, where women and children were prioritized because they were seen as vulnerable and dependent. Men were expected to be protectors while women and children symbolized innocence and the future of the nation. While the intention wasn’t necessarily to devalue men, the effect was that men came to be viewed as disposable. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “misandrist hate speech.” Yes, the phrase … | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 26/06/25 07:34 PM |
| 13 | Second Reading: Interpersonal Violence against Men and Boys (Strategy) BillA deliberative democracy grants legitimacy through reason, not identity. The assumption that those most affected by injustice are best positioned to define and inform policy undermines this basis. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 26/06/25 05:13 AM |
| 16 | Double standards and false narratives regarding male and female subs.In some spaces, the commitment to affirming and protecting women becomes so absolute that fairness toward men is optional or suspended altogether. The result is that men in these stories are often flattened into symbols of harm rather than engaged with as complex human beings. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 25/06/25 06:58 PM |
| 11 | Talking to Left Wingers on Reddit is such a frustrationI think it’s worth noting that social media algorithms are designed to maximize engagement, not understanding. And because outrage gets more clicks, the system ends up rewarding division. Just like war pigs don’t want peace only more war to feed on, platforms like Reddit thrive on endless arguments. The longer we fight, the more they profit. And half the time, the things we’re fighting about aren’t even real problems. The gender war? It’s fucking stupid. Most people just want to live with dignit… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 25/06/25 05:15 PM |
| 14 | Refusing sex with senior female colleagues may have harmed my careerYou experienced gendered coercion. And because dominant gender norms tend to frame men as agents rather than targets of harm, you’ve had few legitimate ways to challenge the behavior without risking social and professional consequences. You describe a reversal of norms (female aggressor, male target) so others who see male power as the default can’t recognize what happened. Because this took place in an informal setting where status and opportunity are shaped more by relationships than by offici… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 25/06/25 04:12 PM |
| 4 | Male disposability is a human right, apparentlyI found humor in his take, but hard agree that NO ONE should be taking life lessons from reality tv lol | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 25/06/25 03:14 AM |
| 14 | (The Guardian) MankeepingIt’s patronizing and masquerades as concern but actually functions as a subtle power move. Instead of engaging with the point being made, the message becomes: “The issue isn’t what you’re saying, it’s that you’re broken for saying it.” You’ll often see this in online feminist spaces, where therapeutic language is weaponized to discredit and control. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/06/25 08:06 PM |
| 18 | (The Guardian) MankeepingMen are expected to be stoic support beams and punching bags. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/06/25 07:50 PM |
| 18 | (The Guardian) MankeepingI’ll pitch my tent right next to yours on that hill. It’s wild how normalized it is to treat men’s feelings as optional. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/06/25 07:47 PM |
| 4 | (The Guardian) MankeepingI get where you’re coming from and agree that each of us is ultimately responsible for managing our own emotions. In healthy relationships, emotions can be processed collaboratively. Sometimes we don’t know what we’re feeling until someone holds space, asks a question, or just stays present. The goal is interdependence: two people who take ownership of themselves, but also know how to show up for each other. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/06/25 07:37 PM |
| 6 | (The Guardian) MankeepingI get where you’re coming from and agree that each of us is ultimately responsible for managing our own emotions. In healthy relationships, emotions can be processed collaboratively. Sometimes we don’t know what we’re feeling until someone holds space, asks a question, or just stays present. The goal is interdependence: two people who take ownership of themselves, but also know how to show up for each other. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/06/25 07:37 PM |
| 1 | Please don't give my husband longer paternity leaveSetting aside the inflammatory comparison for a moment, what I’m reacting to is the dynamic where some groups of women seem to operate with a kind of herd mentality where they assume that all men think and behave the same way. In those spaces, men are often spoken about in generalized and dehumanizing terms. Like, how can this double standard pass for progress? If the roles were reversed, we’d be writing public apologies. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/06/25 06:00 PM |
| 3 | Gender double binds are a headache for men issues.I understand why mainstream feminism can be viewed as self-defeating. Often, it replicates hierarchical thinking (e.g. “your voice doesn’t matter because of what you represent”), which contradicts the stated goal of mutual liberation. And I’ve noticed extremist branches can flip patriarchal logic by valorizing “righteous cruelty,” especially toward cis-men. | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/06/25 03:12 PM |
| 8 | Gender double binds are a headache for men issues.I really enjoyed reading your post and want to add that the “double bind” of modern masculinity is well-documented. For instance, a 2018 Pew Research Center study found that while most people support gender equality in principle, large majorities still expect men to be “strong” and serve as “providers.” Feminist scholar bell hooks argued in The Will to Change that feminist movements have struggled to include men in their vision of healing and liberation, often reducing them to agents of harm. Yo… | /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates | 24/06/25 07:29 AM |
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