I'm a long-time lurker who has been spending some time reading this subreddit after several intellectual disputes with my mother and sister. I'm posting today to throw in my lot about the movement and warn you about several pitfalls which I see looming.

One of the greatest claims to strength this subreddit has is intellectual honesty and rigor. That is the core of why feminism as a political movement has disillusioned me and so many others. Feminism holds to the same platitudes and canonical truths without trying to look critically, in large part because of it's age.

Yet, I see some of that creeping into discussion here as well. Too much of our thought and discussion is prejudiced and vitriolic in a way which threatens the credibility of everyone who calls themselves an MRA. Are the voices of a few not the stem of our criticism of much of feminism? We cannot critique feminism based on individual voices unless we apply the same principle to ourselves. It's important to remember that whenever we upvote a post or comment. Every voice from within this group affects the perceptions of those outside it.

To me, men's rights exists to correct the flaws of our predecessors. We believe in equal rights for everyone, and that means not being judged by the shape of our bodies, but, as MLK said, "the content of our character.". Feminism had it's genesis in a time when women were disregarded in obvious and relatively easy-to-correct ways. The inability of a woman to be recognized as strong and powerful as any man was a deep flaw in our society of years past. Where feminism fails is in recognizing that women had privilege in many ways that many simply had not been considered. Women were valued and honored in ways which they are loathe to give up now. If misogyny and racism are the same, where is the female version of "nigger?"

Today I believe that women still face much stereotyping for their sex. Feminists are correct in that regard. Yet men face many of the same problems and still more which women have little experience coping with. Men's rights is a way to get people to look at their preconceptions in a new light and realize that classic story of the oppression woman isn't quite true, particularly today. In that goal, we must be careful not to become our own canonical narrative and give up our ability or desire to look at the world in a way which might be a little bit scary.

I'm concerned with a trend here which justifies the existence of men's rights with anecdotal evidence or sources articles which are alarmingly self-affirming. This isn't to say that all such stories are without place; sometimes it's important to vent and revel in anger. We should take care about the number that find there way to the top of the pages however. There are quite a few articles of women raping boys followed by the question "would this happen if they were a man?"

As I finish I would like to leave a couple recommendations before I go. Be careful in how you speak and remember that making friends is better than making enemies. Men's rights has the moral high ground, be careful your moments of indiscretion don't lose it. The second, and most important is just to think a moment before you throw an upvote to a post. Ask yourself what it adds to the discussion and how it might be interpreted by someone stumbling in this subreddit for the first time.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and keep fighting the good fight.