Post Updated Below

First, this is a throwaway account so I will likely not be replying to many comments, or will at least be slow in doing so.

I am currently in a graduate program at an Ivy League institution. The program I am in has produced a very large number of political, corporate, and social leaders for many, many years. All indications point to this trend continuing.

I mention this because the prevailing attitude both within my program and the university at large is radically feminist, in line with the values of Valenti or Bindel. Perspectives like those on this board are very rarely voiced and if they are brought up are almost immediately shouted down as endorsing inequality and sexism.

Outside of a few people like myself arguing against the hypocrisy of modern feminism, the overwhelming consensus is that my opinions are regressive and misplaced in our new progressive, globalized society. Based on my experience, this social climate is consistent from one elite educational institution to the next.

Thus, what is going to happen is that a large majority of this and other schools’ graduates will enter the real world with firmly entrenched ideas about things like rape culture and the wage gap. These students will go out into the workplace and take key political, corporate, and social positions as they are trained to do. The political ideas they hold now will gain even greater force in the public at large, become even more radicalized, and eventually the radical feminism of today will seem conservative.

The reason I write this is that we are at a unique juncture. Right now, counter-feminist opinions are dismissed in the elite mainstream with the implicit assumption that feminist opinions are morally correct. While some within the counter-feminist movement counsel patience and argue that the social pendulum is beginning to swing back towards sanity, I do not believe this is accurate. Right now, the Western world is set to become even more radical in the very near future. By the time the public begins to push back in force, many of these radical changes will have become institutionalized under the radar and will be extraordinarily difficult to change.

We do not have time to wait for the public to turn against feminism. We have to turn the tide now, before the balance shifts even further in the opposite direction. Though it will not be easy by any means, the counter-feminist movement needs to grow. People at the top need to understand that feminist ideals do not represent the mainstream.

Given everything outlined above, I advocate for growing the counter-feminist movement by any means possible. Instead of avoiding discussion with our family and friends about these topics, we need to embrace such discussion. Instead of staying silent in our classrooms or workplaces for fear of censure, we need to speak up about accepted prejudice against men, particularly when directly confronted with examples of this prejudice (e.g., orientation programs or hiring practices).

Right now, the counter-feminist movement is nebulous. People chat on boards like this or comment on YouTube videos about feminism’s problems but endorse the status quo in their everyday lives. While many online communities against feminism exist today, few public demonstrations or real world groups exist with anything near the same membership. We need to take the fight from the virtual world into the real world. We need to make the movement something people cannot explain away as just another online fringe group. We need to make the movement something people can see. If we hesitate now, we may never get another chance.

EDIT:

As there seems to be a fair amount of agreement that we need to increase our influence in the real world, I wanted to encourage people to offer potential ways to increase that real world impact. This is not to say we cannot continue to discuss ideological concerns here, just that we add concrete action tactics to the discussion. Some have implied that we do not want to go into details on this board about any potential tactics as it is monitored by those fighting against us. While I also believe this, the discussion of general tactics can greatly aid the movement without providing much info to feminists and others working against us. I don’t want this to just be another board where we discuss things and nothing ultimately happens. The entire point of this post was to spur action, it is only fitting that we discuss how to do so here as well.

Potential tactics that occur to me right away are increasing our participation in local politics and our respective communities. We can attend and speak out at school board, town council, and other local meetings. We can use Facebook and other social media to organize local MRA groups. After these groups are organized, we can post or hand out flyers in public places to encourage others to attend. Handing out or posting informational flyers is a potential option even without having organized groups as those flyers will at least get the information to the public, something we are not doing now. While we will almost certainly be attacked for speaking up, we will nonetheless be getting the information out there. Once people hear things, they cannot be unheard. Though it may seem small, I believe this is how we start to change things. This is how we start to harness popular public opinion and turn feminism into the problem instead of the solution.

Also, just a thought, but those with large counter-feminist followings on YouTube/Facebook/Twitter/other social media sites may have followers who are interested in but unaware of this conversation. If people are open to reaching out to their followers, it may prove very helpful. I personally feel that the more people we get involved in the conversation, the more productive it will be.