This is a crosspost from an earlier article I put on TwoXC, but I think it needs to be here too.

I don't think you guys realize just how strongly you're movement is controlled by the Religious Right. I think you need to take it back for yourselves. But don't take my word for it. Here's the proof: I am sick of hearing about the Men's Rights Movement on Reddit. I am sick of impotently antagonizing it and getting no where. Someone asked me just why I hate on it so much. So, here we go, TwoX...

It turns out is IS a conspiracy and they ARE out to get us. Everyone, even the men, it turns out. My thought/opinion was, the Men's Rights Movement has become a sick joke at best, and a patriarchal, sick anti-feminist front organization for the Christian Right at worst. And this may be just an opinion, but here are the facts that led me to to conclude I was wrong. It wasn't just that MRA is bullshit and doesn't help men, it was that they were going after us, too, and everyone else while they're at it.

MRA movements started out poorly and things haven't changed, I'm sorry to say. Founded in the US in the 1970s as a backlash against the gains made by the women's lib movement, the MRAs and their organizations in the US and abroad have kept close ties to the conservative right and the Evangelical church. I could not find one secular men's rights group without strong ties to the Christian right that was active in America today. This is because philosophy is based on a mix of Christian masculinism and Victorian-era masculinism. And because the movement tends to be litigious, it is reactionary. Their primary focus as organizations are child support payment laws and divorce laws. And with any organization, it helps to follow the money: and it almost all comes from conservative organizations. I could not find one liberal donor base for any major MRA group today. This means conservatives shape the MRA agenda and dialogue, with devastating results.

Today, one of the largest contributors to men's rights causes across the board is the Promise Keepers, an Evangelical Christian organization which is as committed to advancing men's issues as it is to rolling back women's issues. It has heavy ties to Focus on the Family as does it's founder, Bill McCartney. These guys are involved in some way in almost every single men's rights group today. For them, women's rights begin and end at a man.

Despite their claims to gain legitimacy for their own reproductive rights, many MRAs and their representatives seem to have no problem trampling over a women's bodies and their own philosophies so they may gain control over a women's right to choose. Many countries like Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Malawi, Morocco, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates all legally require that an abortion must be authorized by the woman's husband. Most of these countries do not have any legal protections in place for the health of the mother.[Wikipedia via the Guttmacher Institute and a ten year review of family planning internationally]. In China the law states that a woman has no overriding priority over her spouse in deciding whether to have a child.[Wikipedia again but confirmed for 2011]. I suppose this train of logic follows the "every sperm is sacred" philosophy of thought. I have heard many MRAs express their outrage that their partner's can have an abortion/choose to bear a child without their consent, so it seems women are the bad guys no matter what choice they make simply because men don't have ovaries.

MRAs love to focus on unequal child custody laws and alimony payments but their statistics are often biased and flawed. Male alimony recipients have risen every year since 2006 [US Census]. The American Coalition of Families and Children, the leading policy organizations for men's rights after divorce in the US, is headed by Steven Baskerville (evangelical Christian author/historian) and has many conservative Christian and Republican ties to private conservative colleges on the East Coast. Although the organization is also headed and involved with many feminists and women (including Dr. Linda Nielson of Wake Forest U), it has yet to seriously cut ties with conservative christian philosophy and chauvinism. The organization opposed the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, and almost 90% of their articles focus on child support fiduciary disputes. It is clear their main focus is on money and not children or families at all. This is dishonest and disheartening. How come these groups can't just come out and say they want to reduce or eliminate child support payments by the state and eliminate alimony, if that's what they want? Must they hide behind their children and wives to do it?!

Perhaps most damning of all is their own literature. The largest MRA groups in the country right now are direly entwined with the right and do not even try to hide it. In doing this research, I find it inconceivable that so many male Redditors who are otherwise secular can support such a theocratic, anti-women, anti-male, anti-progressive agenda as is supported by the MRA and it's groups right now, but I think I know why: misinformation.

They largest, most well-funded MRA group in the world right now supports deception, misinformation, and trickery to achieve their goals. Innocentdad.org and the ACFS put out a manual on how to form grassroots support for men's rights [http://www.innocentdads.org/acfcmanual.pdf] last year. This is what they have to say about feminism and men's rights. This is what they really think:

" Convincing a legislator that funding child support is like funding abortion will score every time with a pro-life legislator [pg 102]"

"...abortion and men's rights have strong paralells... because it has to do with children's futures and the killing of a two-parent family that are traditionally support children and serve the interests of most women best [102]."

" Society does not care what men want. It only cares about women and children [103]." (WHAT THE HOLY FUCK WHY WOULD YOU EVER SAY THIS)

" Most women want a decent home with kids, a white picket fence, two cars, and as few problems as possible [103]."

On divorce: "... most women know that the government has entitled them out of support... and all you need to do is convince them of the value of having a husband to win them over [103]."

On liberal women: " When you come along talking about how having a husband is the greatest predictor of health and happiness for a women, you will gain support from even the most grassroots and liberal of women[103]."

The final nail in the MRA coffin is when their largest group admits they need a woman to do it FOR them:

" Pro-family activism works not by demanding it for fathers, but by convincing normal women that having a solvent husband in their life is more likely to get them what they want then anything else [104]."

Of course, this is just a small sampling of the gems buried in that distasteful manual. I encourage everyone to read it for themselves.

Men, if you really think the MRA movement is still working for your best interests, that manual should change your mind.

If the MRA has any hope of fighting for real men's rights issues, then it needs to start getting it's shit together. It's not feminists going after you right now, MRA: it's yourselves. Do you really want to be part of a movement that thinks the best way to represent your best interests is by telling you that you MUST be a husband to some woman? These groups didn't sound like MRA is what they have in mind.

It all sounds like hate speech.