Anne-Marie Slaughter: 'I think we need a men's movement'

567565748 · 2013-07-22T17:13:23+00:00

http://www.genderratic.com/p/1686/gynocentrism-when-feminists-engage-mens-issues/#comment-9243

Well-intentioned feminism has been trying to co-opt and drive discussions of men’s issues for quite some time now, and the efforts have only ramped up with the emergence of a separate men’s rights movement.

Ozyfranks, for example, whose blog is now hosted at the Good Men Project, has made several stabs at arguing that feminism is the rightful owner of men’s issues, and that anyone who tries to discuss men’s experiences outside the feminist framework is simply being foolish and counterproductive.

Why bother looking at men’s issues from any other perspective when we already know the ’right’ one–the one that throws around terms like ”male privilege,” ”patriarchy,” and ”rape culture” as proven facts that are essential to having any sort of meaningful conversation? What man could possibly have an objection to such a fair-minded starting point? Only one who’s feeling his privilege threatened, of course….

codebeard · 2013-07-22T18:08:22+00:00

Reading between the lines, I think she means "I think we need a men's feminist movement".

She says this immediately after saying:

Women have made considerable inroads in the workplace over the last half century, while men have arguably made less impact in the home. The US Bureau of Labour Statistics says that on an average day, 48% of women and 20% of men do housework such as cleaning or laundry; when it comes to married people with children, both working full-time, 72.1% of women say that on an average day they care for and help their children, while 55.1% of men do the same. Childcare remains resolutely low-status, and Slaughter thinks this is partly due to the attitude, "'well, it's women's work', and since we denigrate women, we denigrate caregiving."

As we know, these stats are easy to fudge. Nowhere is it acknowledged that men are probably working 10 hours more on average per week than their full-time working partners. Cleaning and laundry is just one part of housework – who is mowing the lawn, cleaning the gutters, etc? And I don't know how they got so few people (both men and women) saying on an average day they care for and help their children – I would expect both percentages be near 100%. [I'd be interested to see what questions they actually asked.]

I appreciate her support of men in the home, but I really don't think we can take her out of context as saying "we need an MRA movement"; she is a dyed-in-the-wool feminist after all. "More responsibilities for and expectations of men" is all I'm hearing.

2013-07-22T20:35:37+00:00

She had been commuting from New Jersey to Washington each week, leaving the house at 4.20am on Monday and arriving back late on Friday, and her 14-year-old son was having problems at school – failing to do homework and disrupting classes. She decided enough was enough.

Other words because her son is being effected she is now being effected by her son's issues as well. And like it played out before her speaking out gets notice more than a man speaking out.

Women have made considerable inroads in the workplace over the last half century, while men have arguably made less impact in the home.

No shit as men in the US are not welcome really in the home as far as domestic duties goes. As men are still wildly held to their breadwinner roles and to an extent alienated from being around kids and that taking up domestic duties.

imbignate · 2013-07-22T22:17:08+00:00

But that's not to say men aren't concerned about these issues. In 2008, 60% of American men reported feeling a conflict between their work and family life. "I really think we need a men's movement," says Slaughter, "and you're starting to see it. Guys are starting to speak up for themselves about masculinity, about care-giving. You know, women are hypocrites this way, because we would go crazy if men treated us in the workforce the way we typically treat them at home – if a guy in the workforce assumed he was more competent than you are, and told you what to do – but that's the way most women treat men in the household."

This is the line of thinking that brought me into the MRM. When I was an at-home parent for 18 months I realized that to most people I was a joke and unfit to parent by default. It was eye-opening.

2013-07-23T14:07:02+00:00

Kinda like someone saying in 2013, "I think we need an electric car."

KRosen333 · 2013-07-22T18:21:27+00:00

As pointed out, this woman is no ally of ours, even if she is not an outright enemy.

Be careful of those who bring a flag of peace, for they have the greatest power to misconstrue you to yourself.

aka, it's great that she's shining attention on this, but she does not define us; and we need to make that clear.

saint2e · 2013-07-22T16:28:34+00:00

Great article, A++, would read again.

Lord_Perseus · 2013-07-22T19:17:41+00:00

If an article like this is published in the Graun view it with the utmost suspicion. What this femcunt likely means is a movement to further harass & persecute men in order for them to be put under the thumbs of the femcunts.

TheGDBatman · 2013-07-23T05:12:10+00:00

Most of those comments, while not unexpected, disgust me. If this were the civil rights movement, most of the men there would be called Uncle Tom.

Pathetic.

Title	Anne-Marie Slaughter: 'I think we need a men's movement'
Author	iamstandingbehindyou
Upvotes	44
Comments	11
Date	July 22, 2013 4:09 PM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1ithw8/annemarie_slaughter_i_think_we_need_a_mens/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/anne-marie-slaughter-i-think-we-need-a-mens.1168193 https://theredarchive.com/post/1168193

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