I’ve been following the Men’s Rights Movement for some time, and I’ve never been quite sure exactly what the major injustices faced by men are. I haven’t really noticed much to speak of in my own life, but evidently there are some and they are really, really bad.
Luckily, in recent days A Voice for Men has begun to clarify the issue for me. For example, AVfM Radio’s new theme song points out two of the worst injustices of all:
- Men having to hold doors open for ladies.
- Ladies wanting to marry us.
But these are not the only important men’s issues out there. In a recent post titled “A hard rains gonna fall: how hard is up to you” (clearly a reference to the famous song by Carly Simon), AVfM head dude Paul Elam spells out the most important issues of all in a set of bullet points. To save the beleaguered men of the world some important man-time I will summarize them for you here. Bullet-time!
- Thomas Ball’s suicide isn’t mentioned on Wikipedia because feminism.
- The Obama administration urged colleges to use the same standard of proof used in most non-criminal cases in their non-criminal disciplinary proceedings dealing with rape cases. Because feminism.
- Australia. Something about Australia. Ok, here’s the deal: Australia is very, very far away from me, like literally on the other side of the planet, and my eyes sometimes glaze over when reading about it. I’m sure whatever Elam is mad about is really bad. It might involve Koalas. Feminist Koalas. But that’s just speculation on my part.
- In India, where women are routinely harassed in public and groped on train cars, there are a tiny number of women-only train cars set up to cut down on the groping.
- In Sweden, a small group of feminists did a theatrical production based on/dealing with the writings of Valarie Solanas. It was performed in some schools.
- “Men constitute the lion’s share of combat deaths[11], workplace deaths[12], suicide deaths[13], and are afflicted with almost every known human malady and disease more frequently and more severely than women.” Obviously, the feminists are to blame, for their staunch opposition to women serving in the armed forces, and for their secret program of giving men girl germs.
- There are agencies dealing with women’s health issues. Clearly, men need to have just as many of their own agencies to deal with such male health issues as not being pregnant.
I hope my summary of these issues has been fair. As Elam has pointed out on a number of occasions, I am fat, so really nothing I do or say has any value. Plus, of course, I am a mangina. Just, you know, FYI.
In any case, these injustices have Elam plenty mad:
I am truly curious as to what festering, morally atrophied deviation of humanity could look at anything approaching this level of discrimination and suffering without becoming angry.
So mad that his metaphors all get up in each other’s business:
Whether it becomes a wave of social change, or a violent tempest of indignation and fury, the pendulum will continue to swing.
So there you have it. Naturally, Elam’s readers are grateful for his efforts to bring justice to the world by yelling about it online and trying to get people really, really mad at certain specific ladies without explicitly advocating violence against them. That’s pretty much how Martin Luther King did it, only with fewer references to “bitches” and “cunts” and not so many threaty remarks.
As Alfred E puts it:
Well said Mr Elam. May the harpies finally get a clue about their complete lack of compassion for men and boys all the while living in a gold box carted around by the prince.
Justice and compassion for all, except you harpies in your gold boxes! And also the rest of the bitches, cunts and manginas.
NOTE: That bit about Carly Simon above was a joke. Obviously the song in question was written by The Bangles.
I wish a prince would cart me around in a gold box. It sounds like fun.
OK, do this:
1) Make a list of the 10 worst things that can happen to a person. You can put anything you want on your list. Any kind of violence, any kind of accident, any kind of death, any kind of disease, social dispossession, suicide, homelessness, addiction, incarceration, any kind of disability, etc.
2) For each item on your list, find out if it occurs more to men or women.
3) Compare your list of actual suffering to our social response to suffering:
— 600 feminist university departments with thousands of employees paid to find solutions to women’s problems
— 2000 publicly funded institutions, presidential commissions, etc, working to help women to implement these solutions
— 10,000 scholarships, programs, and educational initiatives to help women to find their own solutions to their problems, in cases where institutional solutions are inadequate.
I like it. Great. Women are people, and government should protect people. Bravo
4) For men:
— ZERO university departments working to find solutions to men’s problems
— ZERO public institutions, commissions, etc. to help implement these programs
— ZERO scholarships, programs, and initiatives to help men and boys.
Sound fair to you?
If it does, I think you are a bigot.
If it does not, you just took the first step (of many) in understanding the mission of the MRM.
The MRM:
Equal protection under the law
Equal protection of governemt
Feminism:
Hate
It does appear that not only do they have a problem with things (that actual are serious-the workplace, medical, and combat deaths/illnesses/injuries) but they are furious, FURIOUS that feminists are not dropping everything they care about to work on these way more important issues.
Because after all, men are more important then women. /sarcasm
And what are you doing to correct these issues, Zarat?
Yes, there are no departments anywhere.
No men’s health networks to help men out with their health needs.
And men certainly have no scholarships for them. None whatsoever.
Wait, all of those links are to things that say the exact opposite. Men’s studies programs, men’s health networks, and scholarships are all there on the interwebz just waiting for someone to go look at them.
Hm, he must think that the global south has a shit ton of trans men, as giving birth is one of the leading global causes of death and is a common cause of serious injury.
And, of course, as clueless privileged first worlders (and proud of it!), they seem to labor under the mistaken impression that only white soldiers die in war. Civilian populations are never, ever affected. Women are never, ever subjected to systematic rape and torture during war. Death and injury in birth never skyrocket due to infrastructure destructions of war. Women’s rights and franchise are never stripped away as a bargaining tool or by fanatics who take over a chaotic political situation. Never ever.
What if my top-ten list of Most Awful Things That Can Happen to Anyone Anywhere Ever includes “being impregnated at age 12 by one’s own father and then forced to carry the fetus to term”? Because I’m pretty sure that’s more awful than my personal imagination can imaginate.
…Oh, wait, never mind! Things are only Truly Awful(TM) if a MAN says they are. (And you know what’s Way More Awful(TM) than being forced to carry your child-rapist father’s baby to term? Having to hold doors! For ladies! And then not-marry those ladies!)
How ladysilly of me.
@darksidecat: Yeah, “being a repeated survivor of systematic rape in the Congo” is also on my personal top-ten list of “really horrible things that can happen to human beings” – and it happens overwhelmingly to women and girls.
“Being murdered horribly simply because you were born _______” is also on that list. I wonder how many men qua men are killed each year, and how that compares to the number of women being killed for being women, or folks of either sex being killed for being a certain color or sexual orientation or gender identity, etc. ?
The mistreatment of the working class by the upper class (which leads to things like workplace death), comes courtesy of the Patriarchy, just like every other malady on your fucking list.
Antz,
You forgot the terrible, terrible discrimination in federally funded research, to whit: so much to find a cure for breast cancer, so little to develop working sexbots.
@Post
You must be misinformed. The “American Men’s Studies Association” is a feminist hate group, dedicated to segregation and destruction of men. It was formerly known as “National Organization for Changing Men”. Before that it was the “National Organization for Men Against Sexism”. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the feminist hate movement, dedicated to telling men that they are disgusting animals and should castrate themselves:
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2010/04/22/mens-studies-foremost-authority-opts-for-castration-literally/
I don’t think that you are such a bigoted, vile, poisonous person to suggest that an organization that openly embraces anti-male discrimination and self-mutilation should act as spokesperson for solving men’s problems. I think probably you did not know any better. Now you do.
Which is why the MRM focuses on things like creating more counseling centers for men with addiction and/or mental health issues. Concerns about incarceration is why you, Zarat, have been such an advocate for repealing the “Rockefeller” laws and petitioning at the state and federal levels for a waned approach to the “War on Drugs” and reducing sentencing/expanding sentencing alternatives for nonviolent drug offenders, right?
A deep and abiding concern about homelessness and unemployment would explain why MRM organizations have been working so hard to start homeless shelters first and only using extra funds to put out information bounties on college actresses, right? MRM advocates have, no doubt, been working diligently to address the issue of man on man violence as men suffer, disproportionately from violent crimes at the hands of other men.
I can think of hundreds -nay thousands- of issues that affect men directly and disproportionately, Zarat. And being a feminist does not prevent me from recognizing them and working, actively, to address them. The sum total of your activism seems to be: 1) posting on websites and 2) telling your sons to avoid women.
Good job.
@Dani
Poor Dani, sniff sniff.
Right back at you:
http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/feminist-governance-feminism/all-men-are-rapists-and-they-are-coming-after-you/#comment-83280
And I have exactly as much sympathy for you, as you do for me:
ZERO
Antz is a transphobe. This is my surprised face.
This really is what it comes down to isn’t it? women’s issues aren’t as important. How dare women try to solve their own problems when there are men’s problems to solve! Problems that for some reason men, who are apparently the smarter sex anyway, can’t solve themselves.
Ever notice how cancer organizations tend to focus on different types of cancer? not just ALL cancer?
Ever notice how animal rights people focus on animal rights moreso than human rights?
Ever notice how the LGBT movement focuses on the inequalities they face that straights don’t?
It is damn near impossible to focus on every problem all at once. It’s possible to lend a hand to a bunch of different causes and support more than one, but ultimately people tend to focus on one or two. Why is it that men can’t help each other instead of sitting online ranting about the evil feminists and horrible western women? why can’t they help men without trying to destroy services for women? why not push for MORE services for men instead? NO ONE IS AGAINST THIS. I support services for men and tackling problems that affect men! I DO NOT however support misogyny and just dropping services for women though. Not will I stop tackling problems for women either.
I have a friend who is an environmentalist. I don’t call her a bigot for not focusing on feminist issues. Nor does she belittle me for not living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.
Zero sum game. This is not.
The dude who hates women so much he wants mandatory separation is back? And still belittling real problems in favor of fake ones? What a shock. Go back to Stormfront and AVFM, dude, they might listen to you.
Oh wait, even they think you are nucking futz.
The creation of the male studies seems to be a way of bashing feminists so what exactly would it do to help men again? Oh right, nothing.
The men’s studies association on the other hand does seem to care about things like “AMSA Member Produces Documentary About Fathers, Sons & Ending Abuse” And ““Depression Over the Adult Life Course for African American Men” Article by AMSA Board Member”
You know, those things that you MRA’s claim that no one cares about?
Oh I forgot, unless it involves bashing women or feminists, it is feminist and therefore evil!!!
And your article is discriminatory and disgusting. So you can fuck right off now.
Hey, guess what, Antz? I’m a feminist and I think women can rape people! Men, even. It is an integral part of my feminism to believe that women have the same capability for evil that men do.
Stupid iphone. I meant a “saner approach”.
Quackers-add in the fact that they only seem to accept something that hates women and/or feminists as legitimate.
If it focuses on doing something positive for men without even paying attention to women it is suspect and a “hate organization” according to Mr. Zarat.
Helping each other out is no where near as important as hating those evil evil EVIL women!
PLACES TO DONATE INSTEAD OF AVFM IF YOU CARE ABOUT MEN’S RIGHTS
1in6– specializes in rape of men
Innocence Project– frees falsely accused men
NORML/Drug Policy Alliance– fights to end the drug war
Just Detention– works to end prison rape
National Coalition for the Homeless– fights homelessness
Your local homeless shelter– also fights homelessness
AntZ is like NWO except less funny. When we called for better trolls, we really should have been more specific…
@ozymandias42
Here is how you hailed the new FBI definition, which defines all men as perpetrators and all women as victims:
“Congratulations to all the activists who have campaigned to make the FBI change its definition, and congratulations to the FBI for being only about twenty years behind the times.”
Something tells me you are correct when you say “you are a feminist”. But, as to “women have the same capability for evil that men do” — that is just a polite platitude for public consumption. When it really matters, you know who butters your bread.
So, Zarat, you are essentially admitting that neither your nor AVFM are doing anything actively and productively to address many of the issues that affect men? Just whining, deflection, obfuscation and unwillingness to take on the work of real activism.
Good to know.
Oh for fuck’s SAKE dude. Are you literate?
The previous fucking sentence to that: “This definition is, of course, still problematic: for instance, it does not recognize that men can be raped through penetration, because of course an erection means consent. Nevertheless, the acknowledgement that men can be raped at all is progress and could affect everything from funding for sexual violence prevention to basic statistics about how many rapes are committed.”