We're always cool, Ray. My thing is that there aren't any other interest groups pursuing men's issues. Every one of those issues that's listed on that link I gave is something I feel is important, and most people don't care enough to do anything at best and are actively hostile at worst. As many things are wrong with the men's right movement right now and despite how fractured and meandering it is, at least they give a damn about the issues men have to deal with and are trying to do something about it, even if their right hand is smacking their head and their left hand is punching themselves in the crotch (in other words, they're disorganized, fragmented, and often adversarial even to each other).
Sorry no, if you would actually do some research and read what feminism is about you'd know that it fights for EQUALITY and that means ALSO for men.
In spirit, maybe. In practice, I have never seen someone who currently considers him or herself a feminist give anything more than lip service to any of the problems listed in the link I gave in the first post. And those are the generous ones; many are outright hostile to the idea that men have issues at all or that they're something we should be trying to fix.
The reason it's called feminism is because it focuses on the disadvantageous position of females in particular, like earning less than men on the same job (??? like wtf, you can't actually think that's okay), or getting the blame for being harassed/assaulted/raped etc. based on their clothes or behavior or sexual history. And what's wrong with empowering women in the classroom?
I don't want to get into those things in this thread, there are other threads to talk about those issues and I've already offered my thoughts on them there.
MRA is absolutley horrible and I strongly suggest that you do some research. The only issue regarding it is that it exists.
For what reason do you think that? I just see men's rights advocacy as the other side of the coin that is feminism, like Ray said: it's advocating for men's issues, but the end goal for both groups is fair treatment for everyone.
When I read "Men's Rights Movement", my brain interprets "Keeping Men's Privileges Over Women Movement". I honestly don't understand why anybody would want to defend some gender's rights specifically over the other's, when we all should push for equality.
Nobody's focusing on anything to the exclusion of others, we're pursuing our own interests because nobody else will. As Yoshikkko said, feminism concentrates on women's issues. I've never seen any active feminists pursuing any of the issues I listed in the link in my first post. Ideally, men's rights advocacy would just concentrate on improving issues for men. The movement's still in its infancy and very disorganized, but at the core I think what they're saying is right.
But, if we are going to focus on somebody, the men's Right-O-Meter is on 90% while women have barely started to get out of the "openly and proudly discriminated against" stage.
There are more than enough people in the world to be able to have numerous groups simultaneously pursuing fair treatment for different kinds of people. We need people pursuing men's issues because if we don't, no one else will and the abuses will only get worse. The existence of male advocates isn't to the detriment of other advocacy groups.
creating a movement to defend the already privileged gender is even wronger.
Are you suggesting it's wrong to try and fix the problems in front of us just because others, elsewhere are suffering more? Is it acceptable that harm be done to someone just because it's not
as harmful as other wrongs being perpetrated? Is it acceptable to sentence a man to life in prison for a crime he didn't commit because many women in the world can't vote?
Oh, us poor men. We never get a break from the constant stream of discrimination that we face in everyday life. I mean, every single world leader out there is a woman, and women also get paid much more than men. And then you have all these religions talking about the subjugation of men.
Oh, wait.
As someone who is trying to push for issues that nobody wants to even acknowledge, one of the harder things I have to do is always be kind and tactful and take it in stride when people laugh at me just because I'm trying to raise awareness of issues that have driven many men (at least one whom I have known personally) to despair and, in some cases, even suicide (luckily this didn't happen with the guy I'm acquainted with). It's infuriating that people are so callous and derisive about these things when I have seen firsthand the kind of damage they do. It's painful.
I understand that there are others in the world who suffer even more than some of the folks I know do, but that doesn't make their suffering meaningless and something we should just ignore.
However, the Men's Rights movement is largely composed of childish, misogynistic neckbeards who do nothing but whine about the "friend zone" and how girls never want to go out with them.
I'm sure those people exist, but while I do have a problem with the way some MRAs act, I haven't known a single one who falls into this description, and I am at least acquainted with around a dozen or so. Most of the ones I know are fathers who have been on the wrong side of the family court hammer. Some of them are very angry and go too far in what they say, but I don't know a one who as you describe.
Also, they all seem to love to make hugely offensive remarks about rape and minimize the impact that it has on a woman's life. I'd actually support the movement if it actually brought up real issues and worked together with the feminist movement (and it could) to fight for equality.
I do know some MRAs who go too far in this kind of way. Not specifically what you mentioned, but just a general disdain for women, probably as a result of the bad experiences they've had with their spouses.
I did link several issues in the initial post that I think are important and that many MRAs fight to raise awareness about. I was hoping people would discuss their thoughts on those issues more than they did: which ones they think are relevant, what they think should be done to solve the ones that they feel are important, etc.
