Let me begin by introducing my own background. I grew up in a time and place in where the effects of feminism had reached deep into the heart of society.

 

I had an elementary male teacher who would often claim that the world would be better place if all our leaders were women. He would claim, with a straight face, that if the world were run by women, there would be no wars and we would all live in peace. He would give special attention to girls and encourage them to be scientists, all while missing the fact that the vast majority of the boys in his class were struggling.

 

There are more anecdotes, like the English “test” in which we were to read a “study” on how girls are discriminated in the school place and ignored in favor of boys and then had to answer a few “critical thinking” questions. Now I remember reading it and immediately thinking; this can’t be true, it’s the complete opposite of what I’ve experienced. But as I grew and learned about various issues and policies, I found an unmistakable pattern of favoritism. They introduced quota systems in the guise of affirmative action that took jobs away from qualified men and gave them to less qualified women. They created various groups and institutions funded by public dollars that help only women.

 

So you see, when I had learned of the men’s rights groups, it seemed like a natural fit for me. However, as I glimpsed and looked at the issues and posts made, I can’t help but feel as if even though you’ve identified the symptoms of the problem, you’re missing the problem itself.

 

I believe that we are all drawn to the cause because we can acutely see the gross injustice being done to men in our day. However, the posts I see are often of the form of, “Look! Another injustice done by crazy feminists!” My contention is not with the content of the posts. My concern is that we are focusing on the wrong enemy. We need to fight against the ideas of feminism and the powers that fund and support it, not feminists themselves. I see much hatred towards feminists and while I am disgusted by their actions and deeds, I feel it is misplaced and misguided.

 

We must understand that at their core, feminists want justice the same as you and I. They may have a twisted sense of justice built upon a sense of false victimhood from the “patriarchy” but they honestly believe that they are doing what is good and right.

 

Imagine yourself in the life of the typical radical feminist. Imagine having an absent or abusive father. Imagine a childhood of sorrow and fear with a lack of any positive male interaction. Now imagine reading all the feminist propaganda about men raping women, about men abusing women, and about men oppressing women. The propaganda is backed up by “studies” and “statistics”. Then add in the occasional jerk, male or female, that one will inevitably encounter in life and it’s no wonder feminist are like they are. For one to dedicate their life towards a cause such as modern day feminism, it is obvious there is pain deep in their souls. We should feel pity towards such people, not hatred.

 

Now I said typical radical feminist, but let us remember that all supporters of the feminist movement are influenced by some of those things to varying degrees. Not all of them have had abusive or absent fathers or harsh childhoods or had the same experiences. Propaganda based on biased studies is placed in the media to corrupt and shape vulnerable young minds, male and female alike.

 

With all that said, I would like to end the us vs. them mentality. We need to recognize that men and women are meant to be partners in life and that we are better working together for mutual benefit than we our fighting each other.

 

For instance, I propose that rather than making an issue out of equal custody rights, we should instead refocus our efforts on solving the true problem, that is, the frightening instability of the institution of marriage in our time. I hope that everyone can see that divorce hurts children the most and that no matter the victor in their parent’s custody battle, the children always lose.

 

I propose that we stop arguing about whether or not the miniscule wage gap exists between men or women and we refocus our efforts towards questioning why it is that not long ago, a man could graduate with a high school diploma and earn enough money to support his wife and multiple kids and why it is today that after feminism and the influx of women in the workplace that even with both husband and wife working full-time and therefore having theoretically twice the income, families are struggling to pay the bills.

 

One would think that with the great advances made in technology with the passing of time that people would become wealthier and get more for less work, yet somehow it is the opposite. To me, this is the core issue of what our movement should be about, for it is what I believe to be the true root of our problems and the greatest injustice of all.

 

Feminism has tried to argue that the movement has helped women by greatly increasing the number of working women. The argument is an example of one of the deceptions in modern day politics that of equating of welfare with jobs. You hear politicians talking all the time about the need to create jobs as if the point of having a job was to have a job. They fail to realize that jobs are mere means to an end. Before the prevalence of feminism, the necessity of needing the mother of a family to work was the exception, but now, it is the rule. The undeniable fact of the matter is that the majority of working women (and men) work, not because they want to, but because they have to. Yet the feminist movement, which purports to advocate the welfare of women, fails addresses this truth. Instead, they use the movement to promote themselves into positions of higher powers via the glass ceiling arguments and quotas, arguing that somehow their presence in positions of authority will magically benefit women.

 

One of the most troubling aspects of the pressure, financial and social, placed upon women to enter the workforce is the fact that they are removed from their children Feminism strives to paint itself a champion of mothers by advocating maternal leave. The truth is, being a mother is a full time job, and a child does not stop needing his mother the moment they turn 1. It is a rare mother who desires to be parted from her children. Yet, the feminist movement that declares itself an ally of mothers does not seem interested in this point and instead adamant on having mothers work.

 

Finally, going back to the issue marriage, the necessity of having women work, is one of the major reasons for the increasing divorce rates. Feminists will say that this is the intended effect, to give the women the power to free themselves from bad husbands as if all men were jerks. However, the problem is much deeper than that. The unavoidable nature of most jobs is that they are stressful and tiring. It used be that a man would come home after a long day to be greeted by his loving wife and it would all be worth it, no matter how painful and tiring the job was. But now what you have is two tired and stressful people, both coming home from work with a terrible moods. Arguments over trivial things such as housework and child care are inevitable. In their foul mood, things are said that are not meant and husband and wife hurt each other. What begins as a small argument turns into hatred and irreconcilable divorce.

 

As for issues such as false rape accusations, I would treat them as issues not so much in terms of men’s right, but as simple criminal issues. Nobody except the most radical feminists would argue those things are acceptable. There will always be bad apples in society and best we can do is to help the victims.

 

I need to reiterate that we are indeed oppressed, but not by women, not by feminists. In fact we are ALL oppressed by those who funded and continue to fund feminists and other movements in the guise of human rights. This is a fight in which anger towards other activists is not an effective weapon, for they too are victims. Only through truth and reason can we win.

 

Now I believe strongly that the vast majority of people are fundamentally good. I do not believe there ever existed a period of time when it was common that a father would

ever want less than the best for his own daughter. Nor, was there ever a period of time when a son would feel anything but respect for his own mother. Nor, was there a period of time in which a brother would allow others to harm his sisters. The feminist movement would like to paint a picture of the past as being men oppressing women as if somehow men were fundamentally evil. The truth is the battle has always been throughout human history of the strong and evil oppressing the weak and good. They would have us fight amongst ourselves, creating hatred and divisions, rather than having us unite to fight them. They spread hatred and pit us against each other, man against women, white against black, Christians against Muslims and well-off against poor, all while laughing at how easy we take the bait.

 

And so I wish to issue a call to arms to those who really care.

To fight not with violence, but with words.

To fight not people, but falsehoods.

Not with anger, but with reason.

Not for the benefit of men, but for the benefit of mankind.

 

If we are to ever hope to achieve anything, we must organize; we must exercise our rights to free speech and speak to anyone who wishes to listen. We must counter all propagation of falsehood with fact and reason. Some will attempt to make us ashamed of our ideas, but we mustn’t be as our ideas are neither selfish nor wrong.

 I need to stress that while I whole-heartedly believe what I say, I do realize not everyone will immediately agree with me. So, if you disagree with anything, please, let me know. If we join together and support good rational arguments and counter provocateurs, people will begin to see our way and join us.

 

It is my final hope that even those who currently call themselves feminists see the light and turn away from the ideology that purports to be for their interests but in truth acts against it. I’m not so delusional as to believe that we can convince every single feminist to see my way, but even if we can convince one that would be worth it.