FAQ: What roles should men play in feminism?

thetrollking · 2011-07-09T23:21:28+00:00

Michael Flood [XY-Online] Although the following advice is from a piece specifically addressing the men’s rights movement, the excerpted parts are just as suited to be general advice to pro-feminist men:

(1) Assert a feminist-supportive and male-positive perspective.

Men such as ourselves, men with a concern for men’s issues and a sympathy for feminism, should be trying as hard as possible to take up space in the public arena and to affect social and political relations. We should be writing letters to the editor, lobbying politicians, sending submissions, being interviewed, phoning talkback, plugging XY, holding meetings, forming alliances, getting funding, doing deals and shaking hands.

One point of all this is to create an alternative voice on gender issues that is specifically male. Of course it is essential that women take up as much space as possible too, but pro-feminist men have a particular role we can play, and ironically, sometimes we may be listened to more because we are male. We need to show that anti-feminist men do not speak for all men. [...]

(2) TAKE up men’s rights issues, but differently.

[...] We need to take up the issues about which men’s rights men are vocal, offering an alternative analysis of their character and causes. We have to try to reach the men who otherwise might join men’s rights organisations and in some cases who have their pain turned into anti-women backlash. Doing so will be challenging, and it may involve questioning aspects of the feminist-informed analyses we have held so far. I believe that a recognition of areas of men’s pain and even disadvantage is compatible with a feminist understanding (that is, an understanding based on a commitment to gender equality and justice), but it may take some reworking for this compatibility to be realised. [...]

(4) Set up services.

Whether the issue is divorce or men’s health, we need to provide feminist-informed or at the very least feminist-neutral (and of course male-positive) services and resources for men. If men who have gone through painful divorces and messy custody proceedings, men who are hurting and confused, can find access to such services, they will be able to work through this in ways that are healthy and safe. In fact, I believe that this is happening in Brisbane, as a coalition of women’s and community groups respond to the Men’s Rights Agency and the Hillcrest murders.

Interesting huh. They see their membership dwindling and ours growing so they are trying to co-opt our movement by changing theirs to appeal to our prospective members.

2011-07-10T18:22:40+00:00

Until feminism stops being inimical to individual rights, men should play no role in feminism.

thetrollking · 2011-07-09T23:26:51+00:00

I couldn't find the post that the first quote is taken from, it returns a 404.

Here is this though:

http://www.xyonline.net/category/article-content/mens-fathers-rights

thetrollking · 2011-07-10T00:39:32+00:00

Here it is: http://www.xyonline.net/content/responding-mens-rights-groups

2011-07-10T03:12:03+00:00

From Ol' Hugo "An aspiring pro-feminist man still gets to express his desires and his wants; he doesn’t get to keep a sense of entitlement that tells him that women exist only to meet those desires and wants."

So in essence we must allow Women to have a sense of entitlement, but god forbid we have our own.

Title	FAQ: What roles should men play in feminism?
Author	thetrollking
Upvotes	0
Comments	7
Date	July 9, 2011 11:18 PM UTC (15 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/il7t9/faq_what_roles_should_men_play_in_feminism/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/faq-what-roles-should-men-play-in-feminism.1037542 https://theredarchive.com/post/1037542

Comments