The recent DMCA attacks and their attempts to dox(?) GirlWritesWhat has inspired me to question the anonymity of MRAs.

I haven't called myself an MRA for very long, and in fact I use to call myself a feminist; you see, I grew up in almost entirely female environment - single mother (factually abusive addict father), Montessori school, and grandfather died early; but, he was a scientist and taught me to always step back when analyzing. As such, despite the label I chose, I had questioned the equality of men. Blah blah blah, we're here now; I very much understood the idea put forth by GirlWritesWhat that, however egalitarian your views, using the label of feminism gives Big Fem power, and even disguise.

The trying to dox GGW made me wonder why anonymity mattered, and perhaps if there were not some fairly famous people who browsed this reddit under another name. I had made a few MRM videos before, and got a decent number of hits... but decided to separate myself from this identity for the exact same reasons (though nothing actually happened to me).

Could this fear of social backlash be holding the movement back? Would the suffragists have done so well in anonymity? Could a list of names have accomplished what The March on Washington did?

I cannot speak to your experience, but of the men I know, anything I put forth is generally agreed with. Some may offer counter points, but rare is dismissal; though, however adamant, I am the only one who will discuss the issue with women, let alone assert it in a response. When this conversation happens the men tend to fade into smaller separate circles, looking over at my conversation, but not participating.

One women suggested that I read Beauty Myth, having not read it I did. Jesus-titty-fucking-Christ. One of those men asked what I thought, I went off on it's psychopathic paranoia, and wondered how I would respond without being threatening. He said, "Oh, we just don't talk to her about certain things."

After that conversation, I talked with them about other men's rights issues more, I discussed the MRM, etc... and they had no idea it existed.

I can accept that talking to people in your lives is not the same as exposing your information to everyone, but could fear of persecution be holding this movement back? Could lots of Internet conversation be translating to very little real world discussion? Isn't this a movement which would be served best with grassroots style advocation? How many people here are just giving themselves a mental hand-job and not speaking out?

As I said, I am to some extent guilty of the same, but how pervasive is it? I know it's fallacious, but how many people appeal to authority; how many people of authority are keeping quiet? How many people idealize athletes; how many athletes are keeping their opinions quiet for PR sake? How many people know that someone will bring up rape, and just don't want to talk about rape?

With all our talk about men taking risks that women do not, how many of us truly are taking risks within this movement?