Hey folks. I don't post much around here, but I follow the cause regularly, and over the past few months, you guys have really opened my eyes to a lot of the things I don't realize, and helped me realize why it is a problem, so thank you. I am a male, just to clear up any confusion. It's a long read, I appreciate it if you do.

So, for my final speech in my speech class, I decide to talk about men's rights. Given that I'm in a classroom that is about 80% women, I wanted to make the issue known, backed up with significant details and sources, but also relate to everyone on a level in which I would not offend anyone. Now, I realize sometimes that this inevitable, but it was a topic I felt strongly about, and if I could help some people see the light or change their minds, my time was worth it.

So, instead of saying "WE NEED TO REALIZE THAT MEN'S RIGHTS IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE!", I talked about gender equality. My first point was that the modern feminist movement is not a good source for seeking gender equality because in modern days - they don't want to just "be equal" to men, they want to pretty much oppress men. Those weren't the exact terms I used, but I got the point across in a neutral tone. Because I started off with a touchy subject, I included that the feminist movement is not ALL bad, considering that they do promote advancement for women and push for women's reproductive rights. Keep in mind that all of this information was backed up by credible sources, and research. (Much of which I got from here, you guys rock!) Some of this research includes independent studies that have been done that proved that men and women are roughly as violent as the other - the only differences is men face the repercussions more often, and typically do more damage if the violence gets physical. Other than that, the frequency was almost the same.

My next point went on how women AND men are oppressed in some parts of society (Each argument had it's own section) and how it is wrong that some of these differences exist. From the men's point of view, I wrote that we do need to give respect to women and be aware that they can do just about anything that men can, and vice versa. Like I mentioned, I wanted to try to be neutral in the case by bringing up both sides of the story, while still bringing the topic of male oppression and building awareness of it.

I felt I could've written a more solid speech, but we still have a week before presentations, so I still have some time to revise and tweak it to my liking.

So today, it was a day almost solely for peer evaluations, which three people (2 girls) said they really liked the speech and it was informative, and any suggestions for changes had nothing to do with the content. Given that the class is pretty harshly graded, I had the opportunity to have the professor look over it, so that anything she said that needed to be changed, I could change it for the sake of a better grade.

Well, here's where the problem came in. Before she even started reading it, I brought up the point that I'm trying very hard not to offend anyone, I just want to get a point out that both men and women are oppressed in some form. She glanced over it, and basically said that I should rewrite the speech on something else. Despite my research, she said that more women are abused than men, that they are far more oppressed, and even acknowledged the fact that she has said this to people before, and it has made them offended. She did not like my intro, which was a hypothetical case where a couple has an abuser, and I ask the class if they pictured the abuser as male or female. She wanted me to get rid of the entire section of why the modern feminist movement was wrong - except, of course, the part where I stated the things they do right. She also wanted me to remove the parts about false rape accusations against men, and even the parts where I stated facts about equal violence between genders. All that was left was the positive parts of feminism, and why we need to respect women. She suggested that I narrow down my topic to gender inequality in education or in the workplace...

I realize these topics have some evidence of male oppression, but I do not want to write a speech about that. I understand if my topic is too broad, that's fine. I suggest that I just talk about violence between the genders - but she thinks it's too much of a touchy topic, because it has violence involved, and advises me to stay away from it.

What really chaps my ass is how unprofessional this woman is. I was worried when my classmates were evaluating it that I might get some people pissed off at me and wanting to start an argument. I was expecting her to say "I see where you're going here, let's see ways we can cushion some of the hard points so that you still have a strong speech, without offending someone to the point where they stop listening." I basically expected some professional critique of my paper so that I can edit it for a good grade; all I got was a personal opinion and someone that told me to basically rewrite my entire speech.

Basically, I have a week left, with working a full time job, and with classes on my days that I don't work, I'm going to have a hard time thinking up of a new topic and doing more research on it. The problem is is that I am already struggling in this class, and given that this speech is 25% of our final grade, I can't really afford to do badly on it.

So, this is where you guys come in. What do I do? I know that I'm going to write a mouthful on the teacher evaluations at the end of the semester, but that still leaves me with a tough situation for this speech. It seems as if I don't take her suggestions, I won't get the grade that I want out of this class. I also feel that trying to talk to her about it to change her mind would be a lost cause, and might even put me in a stickier situation than I am in now. I don't want this to escalate into a huge problem, I just want some advice on what to do about my speech. Any suggestions will be read and noted. Thanks.