Going to start this off by saying I'm a male who is very passionate about mens rights. That said, I am going to critique something about our community that I think needs addressed.

Now, I think most of us can agree (especially with the focus the media has put on incels) that men's rights has gotten a pretty bad rep, being seen by the general public as "incels light", or worse, just another term for incels.

A movements public image is everything. There is a reason black men wore suits when they marched for equal rights. They would be the same people fighting for the same cause if they hadn't worn them, but the image of civility had strength.

The way I see it, we have three big issues with our image currently, which I would like to outline briefly.

1: Incels. Now, this isn't really our fault. Incels can frequent mens rights subs, and claim to be "mens rights advocates", when in reality they are wearing the cloak of being for mens rights to seem more presentable and reasonable to the public. I think we need to distance ourselves from those individuals as much as possible.

2: Negative focus. I see this more in the comments section than anything else. Hate doesn't win people over, and bitching (even when justified) about women in a general sense tends to send the wrong message. Focus is key, generalized statements about women instead of focusing on individuals clearly in the wrong makes us seem more like a hate group than a rights group.

3: The rebranding of feminism. Now, it is an understatement for me to say I'm not too fond of the turn feminism has taken in the past decade or so. However, I think that the term feminism has too strong of a history of positive press, one that would be very difficult to turn. That's why, instead of turning "feminist" into a bad word, I think we should point out the bad 'feminists' and say they aren't really feminists. In a group those individuals are strong, however if your fight stops being about "feminists" and starts being about individuals in that movement, I think we would have a lot more women on our side.

The march towards equality isn't a war, it is a hill we have to climb. Women are our greatest allies in this cause, because their words can't be written off as "male privilege". Instead of attacking feminists, we should be recruiting those who are reasonable in the movement, who actually are for equal rights, and work to return the term "feminism" to its former glory, instead of trying to destroy it.