A theme that comes up frequently on this site is one in which someone talks about negative reactions to their support for the MRM. My experience has largely been the opposite. In fact arguing for men’s rights is probably the easiest thing I have ever done. Of course, we have a very strong case and I have better things to do with my time than talk to True Believers in feminism, and neither do I talk about it at work.

True Feminists are a tiny minority and the majority of people have a sense of liberal feminism without really being committed. Such people are usually open to persuasion and, as many of them have not even considered men’s rights to be a matter for thinking about since it would appear that men control everything, it is fairly easy to plant seeds which will grow.

Now people who were regular visitors to this site three years ago may remember that I was writing and recording men’s rights songs with a view to making and album of them. This project has blossomed and I am now in the final stages of recording a four album set. It is also worth mentioning that am a working expatriate in East Africa.

Two days ago I was having coffee with a Laotian expatriate to whom I had given a CD of songs taken from the albums and a local business woman friend of hers. I asked her what she thought of the content of the songs and she expressed quite strong support, having seen the way Western women behave. The local woman seemed quite confused as to why men need rights and asked what the songs were about. I started talking about circumcision – there is a single song on this subject – and arguing that it is indicative of a general lack of men’s rights. Here, in Eritrea I should point out there is a reasonable balance between the sexes both having rights and responsibilities. However male circumcision is almost universal while FGM is severely punished including anyone who knows about it going on without reporting it.

The local lady, predictably, said that the two things could not be compared and that there were health benefits resulting from male circumcision. I debunked the HIV stories with the evidence that there is no correlation in Africa between the practice of circumcision and reduced incidence of AIDS and that the USA, which can be reasonably compared to Europe has a very much higher incidence than Europe where circumcision is very rare. I pointed out that the studies showing that circumcision reduces transmission of HIVin Africa have all been seriously flawed including being biased by being carried out by people with a financial interest in promoting the practice. I also pointed out that babies who have been circumcised show greater reaction to the pain of being injected than babies who have not indicating that the extreme pain of the practice probably also causes permanent damage to the pain response system.

Furthemore, I pointed out that those societies where circumcision is widespread are constantly at war e.g. the Middle East, Aftrica and the USA which is constantly invading other countries as compared to Western Europe, and East Asia where the practice is not widespread. It appeared to me that she was visibly surprised about the existence of the whole sphere of men’s rights, which you can understand when you consider how it looks, i.e. as if men control everything. She listened and objected open-mindedly.

However what really persuaded her was the unreserved confirmation of many of my points, including the medical ones, from the Laotian woman whose opinions carried a lot of weight because she is a doctor. One little seed planted, I suspect it will be growing for a long time. MRAs; use your time wisely and do not argue with feminists but try to persuade normal people of the need for an increased focus on men’s issues.