"A short guide to the Men's Rights Movement"

ralphswanson · 2013-11-13T00:30:32+00:00

There is far more misandry in feminism than there is misogyny in MRM, but the media reports the opposite.

rapey_raperson · 2013-11-13T06:03:09+00:00

When it's Men's Rights, it's "vitriol" and "mysogeny"; ranting and spewing, and evil deeds. When it's feminism, it's "Girl Power", speaking out, and activism.

Underlying the labels of mysogeny and vitriol and ranting and spewing is just more of the same old shit: Men are inherently aggressive and harmful, while womyns are inherently peaceful and harmless (victims, anyone?). Even though online and having no physical advantage, somehow the expressed anger of Men is different from womyns expressing anger. Women's anger is just and right; all unicorns and bravery. Men are simply bad and dangerous.

And it ends with the ever-popular appeal to the masses to dismiss Men's Rights as a movement entirely:

Perhaps what the 21st century needs is not a women’s movement (which was once essential to secure basic rights) or a men’s movement, but a gender equality movement.

Yes, having a movement and dialogue was necessary for womyns, because, well, unicorns and rainbows and injustice and all. But now that Men are asking for the same, it's "Now, now, let's not focus just on what men need, let's focus on both genders." In other words "We feminists want to co-opt Men's Rights and maintain our current privileges, so we'll appeal to your reason to convince you to reject Men's Rights."

You can roll a turd in powdered sugar and call it what you want, it still isn't a jelly doughnut. And if that's too much vitriol for you, too fucking bad.

HolySchmoly · 2013-11-13T00:25:10+00:00

Bleh. Jobsworth writes hit piece on MRM. Mentions Ohio video, but omits to mention it was a paradigm case of don't be thatgirl. Must work harder. Most likely under strict editorial orders. Tries to appear unbiased.

DougDante · 2013-11-13T04:31:22+00:00

"manosphere" seems to be the code word you're most likely to see in an attack article. It's a branding effort.

My comment (same as others):

Thank you for reporting on the men's rights movement, but I feel this report is a bit biased. Consider checking out the reddit Men's Rights FAQ. Here are some quotes from our reddit community members from the FAQ:

"thought I had to share with the community that gave me a lot." - an abused boy.

"I was actually feeling very depressed and suicidal earlier .. Reading the posts I stumbled upon by accident here has dramatically improved my mood - one less thing that I don't feel so isolated on. Thanks for allowing this community to exist!"

"here you can find help and here we are all brothers and sisters that just want to make the world a better place."

"I want to stand up for mens rights. I grew up very oppressed, but never thought poorly of it that way. I always thought that being a man meant that I was supposed to be seen as a "pig" or worse."

"As a male survivor, I learned early on not to talk about it, because it makes me the butt of jokes and ridicule. It's assumed that I wanted it, it's assumed that I'm supposed to be some kind of insatiable horndog .. Thanks for being there to read a little bit of my f***** up story. Thanks for trying to do something about it. When I can't stand up and talk about it, I'm glad that there are people who will."

"For the last 4 years my Sons Mother has been out of our life. She lives nearby and chooses to have nothing to do with him. .. I have been battling [prejudice] since his mother left when he was 2 years old."

"I want to talk about how I was suckered into a hate movement .. men are the enemy .. Paranoia and irrational hatred drives radical feminism. .. [I left because] I couldn't stay that way with my integrity intact. "

"Hi Guys, I am [Liz] a journalist with a New York based digital news agency launching in two weeks .. For everyone who has responded: THANK YOU SO MUCH. Your stories are amazing and you are all brave to tell them."

", I am a 23 year old man who happens to be gay, I am out and proud but it does not define me. ... I want to say I'm overwhelmed with the positive reasponse, I did not now what to expect after what I was told about the MRM, I'm glad what I was told was wrong! I will be sticking around and contribute where I can."

"I am a gay man as well. The MRM is a movement I support."

So, make any report you want. Regardless of your coverage, our community will continue to stand with victims.

JayBopara · 2013-11-13T02:53:30+00:00

This is going to be the biggest battle over the next decade. In one corner - Feminazi/WhiteKnights/Manginas representing women should have privileges and protection, and we don't need to care about the happiness of men, men's only usefulness is what they can give women, and of course feminist lies and narrative.

In the other corner -M&BHRM - representing fairness, due process, anti-misandry, anti-male sexuality demonization, and of course the truth!

What a battle. Will we continue with our bigotry and willful ignorance, or will the truth win?

2013-11-13T06:16:27+00:00

From the article:

For example, Men's Rights Edmonton ran a poster campaign with the slogan "Don't Be That Girl," which accused women of lying about rape and stated, "Just because you regret it…doesn't mean it was rape."

See how clever this campaign was? They have certainly made their point, if people understand their posters to accuse women of lying about rape.

Deansdale · 2013-11-13T01:43:44+00:00

Another feminist scumbag lying to the public.

2013-11-13T14:15:32+00:00

While the Feminist Movement conjures up images of Gloria Steinem and The Feminine Mystique, the Men's Rights Movements (MRM) doesn't feature similarly famous figures or foundational texts.

Warren Farrell and The Myth of Male Power...

blueoak9 · 2013-11-13T19:43:45+00:00

AVfM takes it down: http://www.avoiceformen.com/a-voice-for-men/eshire-a-short-guide-to-the-mens-rights-movement-emily-shires-generalizations-theweek/

Mitschu · 2013-11-13T22:58:19+00:00

While the Feminist Movement conjures up images of Gloria Steinem and The Feminine Mystique, the Men's Rights Movements (MRM) doesn't feature similarly famous figures or foundational texts.

Right off the bat, Paul Elam is famous enough that he recently had anonymous female high schoolers (a demographic I'd imagine isn't front-and-center in the collegiate gender debate) asking him for input for a report on sexism. Warren Farrell is famous enough that just mentioning his name in polite company causes screeches of outrage. But no, we don't have any famous people.

MRM started in response to the growth of Second Wave Feminism.

No. It started in tandem with Women's Rights, which preceded the First Wave of the feminism that would replace it.

Like feminism, many in the MRM argued for equality between the sexes. One of the movement's earliest activists, Warren Farrell, told Salon, "I definitely agree with choices for women, but I do not agree with choices for women when they eliminate choices for men. I think that the sexes need to make choices that lead to the maximum amount of win-win for both sexes." And Farrell himself has some decent feminist credentials: He served on the board of the National Organization for Women (NOW) for three terms.

I thought we didn't have any famous faces...

But Farrell was a moderate in MRM's earliest days. Today, there is more vitriol. The internet has given rise to the "manosphere," a community of MRM blogs, groups, and publications "where participants rant and spew ideas so misogynist they make Silvio Berlusconi look like Gloria Steinem," wrote Jaclyn Friedman at The American Prospect.

Ah, he was only mentioned to shame everyone else by comparison. On the one hand, it's flattering that they hold Farrell on such a high pedestal, on the other hand, one the other... but I digress. "Ideas so misogynist" just begs for clarification and reeks of hasty generalization. I could as easily name drop Sommers, then point out that the rest of feminism is saturated with man-hatred - and it'd be just as unfair (of course, it's a bit of false equivalency, while the MRM only has a few token outliers who could be fairly called "misogynist", feminism has "misandrists" running the fucking movement.)

While there are many MRM sites, a particularly influential one is Paul Elam's A Voice for Men (AVFM). Elam's site is credited with taking already controversial MRM issues and making them even more contentious.

Again, I thought we didn't have any famous people with influence... but what's this about taking controversial issues and making them even more contentious?

For example, Men's Rights Edmonton ran a poster campaign with the slogan "Don't Be That Girl," which accused women of lying about rape and stated, "Just because you regret it…doesn't mean it was rape." AVFM took it further, creating memes around "Don't Be That Lying Feminist" and "Don't Be That Bitch."

Ah. No mention of the "Don't Be That Guy" campaign, which accused men of being rapists, which "Don't Be That Girl" was reversing the script on. More of the usual "women never lie about rape", because otherwise, accusing [some] women of lying about rape wouldn't cause rallies and protests. It'd be kind of the same sort of no-duh as DBTGuy's "Some men are rapists." Well, no shit. some men are rapists... and most aren't. By the same token, some women lie about rape... and most don't. What's wrong with one that isn't wrong with the other?

Most recently and infamously, Crimes Against Fathers went after a woman, seen in a video publicly receiving oral sex during Ohio University's homecoming, after she said she was actually being assaulted at the time. Or, at least they thought it was her.

Yes, and we've all forgotten the Boston Manhunt, or the number of times men have been murdered for being falsely accused of hurting women, or the number of times a day the media gives out the personal information of a man merely suspected of a crime.

And no, mob justice isn't justifiable, but don't act like MRAs invented it. These people thought they were going after a false accuser, just like every day men accused of sexual crimes are gone after by their former peers. The real shame and crime is in the fact that "going after" occurred, not that anyone had expressed maleficence and distrust towards the accused.

But these issues are subsumed by the overwhelming amount of vitriol from the louder members of MRM. That's a shame because there's clear validity to some of these goals, from which men and women would both benefit. Cathy Young at the Boston Globe writes:

Ah, and back to the tone arguments. "You'd be listened to if you weren't speaking so loudly." And naturally, a link to the last hitpiece against us, in case anyone had forgotten that the MRM has been declared smearworthy, just click here and see what else we've misconstrued, misled, and misstated.

Title	"A short guide to the Men's Rights Movement"
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	10
Comments	23
Date	November 12, 2013 11:33 PM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1qhss1/a_short_guide_to_the_mens_rights_movement/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/a-short-guide-to-the-mens-rights-movement.1158979 https://theredarchive.com/post/1158979

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