Lack of academic publication on the Men's Rights Movement

SilencingNarrative · 2012-11-01T14:56:29+00:00

Excellent question. What you've noticed is that the subject of men's rights is taboo. Society has a vested interest in the subject not being broached, and has lots of ways of shutting down such discussions before they get out of hand and call into question number of sacred cows. Here is an examination of why, if you are interested, by a respected academic.

I've posted the first few paragraphs as a teaser:

You’re probably thinking that a talk called “Is there anything good about men” will be a short talk! Recent writings have not had much good to say about men. Titles like “Men Are Not Cost Effective” speak for themselves. Maureen Dowd’s book was called “Are Men Necessary?” and althoughshe never gave an explicit answer, anyone reading the book knows her answer wasno. Brizendine’s book “The Female Brain” introducesitself by saying, “Men, get ready to experience brain envy.” Imagine a bookadvertising itself by saying that women will soon be envying the superior malebrain!

Nor are these isolated examples. Eagly’s research has compiled mountains of data on the stereotypes people have about men and women,which the researchers summarized as “The WAW effect.” WAW stands for “Women Are Wonderful.” Bothmen and women hold much more favorable views of women than of men. Almosteverybody likes women better than men. I certainly do.

My purpose in this talk is not to try to balance this out by praising men, though alongthe way I will have various positive things to say about both genders. Thequestion of whether there’s anything good about men is only my point ofdeparture. The tentative title of the book I’m writing is “How culture exploitsmen,” but even that for me is the lead-in to grand questions about how cultureshapes action. In that context, what’s good about men means what men are goodfor, from the perspective of the system.

Hence thisis not about the “battle of the sexes,” and in fact I think one unfortunatelegacy of feminism has been the idea that men and women are basically enemies.I shall suggest, instead, that most often men and women have been partners,supporting each other rather than exploiting or manipulating each other.

truthjusticeca · 2012-11-01T14:47:20+00:00

It's new and if you're interested in some academic journals, check out:

http://newmalestudies.com/OJS/index.php/nms

LucasTrask · 2012-11-01T15:13:59+00:00

...Why is there such a severe lack of academic publications...

This supposes that "academic publications" within the social sciences have legitimacy. If your field chooses to appropriate terms like "theory," then redefines the term to make their theories unfalsifiable, then there's a real problem calling it a science.

Science isn't about choosing your conclusion first, then coming up with a body of work to support the conclusion.

2012-11-01T15:13:37+00:00

You know the answer to your own question. Of course the lack of scholarly material affects us, if you ask the vast majority of people outside the MR movement what an MRA is they will respond by calling us misogynists, or chauvunistic pigs, or rape supporters or worse.

BonanzaCreek · 2012-11-01T13:50:34+00:00

The MRM is relatively young when compared to feminism for example. Give it fifty years and see what happens.

DavidByron · 2012-11-01T19:38:43+00:00

I think some accademic disciplines are nothing but propaganda outfits for powerful groups. Just like economics is nothing but a job to tell poor people it's OK for the rich to rip them off constantly, so a lot of what passes for sociology (the unscientific gender stuff) or anything about "women's studies" is just feminist man-hating propaganda.

How does this lack of material affect your perceptions of legitimacy as a movement?

It affects my perception of the legitimacy of your sociology courses. If so-called sciences fail to describe reality, it's not the fault of reality.

themountaingoat · 2012-11-01T14:14:26+00:00

Academia has a huge feminist bias. The president of harvard was fired for suggesting that there might be fewer women in science because of differences in aptitude or ability. In addition there are entire departments who are only looking at these issues from one side (the side that says that women are oppressed).

2012-11-02T02:24:18+00:00

OP here. Thank you all for your responses. It is much appreciated.

RealQuickPoint · 2012-11-01T13:48:32+00:00

Legitimate question:

Are you going to actually consider what we have to say, or are you here to try to tell us we don't need a movement (that it is illegitimate for us to even be concerned) because there are more pressing issues at hand?

Looking at your posting, you've out right stated you cannot take us seriously because there are more pressing issues. I'm having serious doubts about the intellectual honesty behind your query, frankly. You don't seem to have any respect for us.

ignatiusloyola · 2012-11-01T16:40:09+00:00

Are you blind to the institutionalized power of feminism, and how it utterly relies on the concept of patriarchy theory to exist? The existence of a men's movement is quite contradictory to patriarchy theory, and therefore the feminist academics have a vested interested in ensuring that the men's movement doesn't get attention.

Additionally, are you aware of how long it took for feminism to be accepted into academia? The women's rights movement didn't warrant mention for many decades, and the men's rights movement is only a few decades old at best.

ErasmusMRA · 2012-11-01T13:32:40+00:00

If you just graduated with a degree in sociology, shouldn't you be able to answer your own question? Maybe you should ask for your money back because it seems your education focused entirely on feminism as an attempt to understand society. It's like studying one side of a coin to try to figure out what's on the other side.

How does this lack of material affect your perceptions of legitimacy as a movement?

I suppose you're implying that lack of publications about the movement somehow undermines our legitimacy.

Let me ask you this: If you wrote a paper detailing all the ways in which men are discriminated against in our society, would you be able to find an academic journal to publish it?

DavidByron · 2012-11-01T13:34:16+00:00

[permanently deleted]

ManUpManDown · 2012-11-01T17:09:33+00:00

Second Ignatius; it takes time for grassroots movements to develop to academic status: first, they need a solid descriptive theory that will, in turn, undergird "normative" theories dealing with the empathy gap that men suffer from. Those theories, in turn, influence future leaders when they're minds are malleable--mainly when they're in college.

This is why it always bothers me when someone here writes something like: "I'm only concerned about men having equal legal rights, and therefore casual chivalry is not a men's rights issue," without realizing that certain deeply-rooted problems must be nipped in the bud before such equality will arise.

Kentuckyless · 2012-11-01T22:47:50+00:00

It's a newer movement than the others out there, so there's been less time to produce our own academia.

Kuato2012 · 2012-11-01T15:22:13+00:00

Lack of publications probably does affect the MRM's legitimacy in the eyes of the general populace, but it doesn't discourage me for one reason. For any rights movement, if you go back far enough, you can find a time when there was essentially no academic discussion about it. The lack of pubs means the idea is young, not bankrupt. Ironically, the MRM also faces special disadvantages that other rights movements (for groups that are recognized as "traditionally oppressed") do not. First, it's difficult to convince people that such a movement is necessary, and second, people have knee-jerk reactions about the supposed sexism inherent in the MRM. We're up against a lot of prejudice, misinformation, and bias.

Being pro-MRM or being critical of modern feminism earns one a lot of artillery fire from the substantial feminist bloc (everything from bloggers to academics). I can't imagine an author or editor wanting to invite that. I suspect it would ruin their credibility in the eyes of their professional peers, which amounts to career suicide. So where exactly would you expect a nascent MRM to gather steam, except in little pockets of the internet?

Aaod · 2012-11-01T21:07:19+00:00

Only thing I do not see mentioned yet is funding. Feminism gets and has massive amounts of funding. The mens movement does not. Plus businesses love women and hate men simply because they spend so much more money.

giegerwasright · 2012-11-02T00:07:42+00:00

Academia will not progress on this issue in my lifetime, of that I am sure. It is far too overrun with anti white, anti male, anti straight PC politicking and status quo to ever bother reconsidering.

actanonverba8 · 2012-11-02T05:57:11+00:00

A small example of the totalitarianism from those who scream "tolerance".

Eulabeia · 2012-11-01T16:16:35+00:00

How does this lack of material affect your perceptions of legitimacy as a movement?

I think the lack of widely available material is actually the result of people seeing it as illegitimate. There's plenty of men's rights stuff out there, they just don't teach it in schools.

ManualForMen · 2012-11-01T14:32:13+00:00

To summarize, MRM is not in books because it is new, the papers and books have yet to be written.

It is a woman's nature to join together with all other women to extract food and other resources from men and women.

It is man's nature to compete with other men for resources and for women, as well as to protect and to feed women.

I.e. it is very hard to start a Men's Rights Movement. I think that what we have today is unique in human history. We have the best in combination of factors to start such a movement: strong tendency toward matriarchy, lots highly rational and educated men, and relatively weak external enemies. Usually, when women made men too weak, society was taken over by neighbors.

By the way, would you consider "Woman. A Manual for Men" a sociological book? www.manualformen.net

rightsbot · 2012-11-01T13:18:19+00:00

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Title	Lack of academic publication on the Men's Rights Movement
Author	Fisto27
Upvotes	42
Comments	63
Date	November 1, 2012 1:16 PM UTC (13 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/12geyf/lack_of_academic_publication_on_the_mens_rights/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/lack-of-academic-publication-on-the-mens-rights.1010117 https://theredarchive.com/post/1010117

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