What do Men’s Rights Activists want? Based on what they actually do, it’s seems pretty clear that many of them want little more than the right to pester women with endless cries of “what about the menz?” But from time to time MRAs will step forward with little bullet-pointed manifestos presenting their grievances — and their goals — to the world.
So today let’s look at one of these little manifestos, from an MRA calling himself TzeTze Anopheles. It’s pretty revealing. And stupid. But that goes without saying.
Tze Tze starts off by demanding:
A complete rollback of all misandric laws. … It is high time we assigned the systematically unjust, contradictory and oftentimes outright insane feminist laws to the dustbin of history.
So what does Tze Tze mean by this? Well, you guessed it: “Paper abortion.” That is, the right of men to abandon their children without penalty.
Reproductive rights must be bestowed on *both* men and women and the cruel farce that is the current family law regime ended. This entails granting men the right to unilaterally “abort” their responsibility for any child they might have sired for the *exact* same time period a woman has to abort her child.
Huh. If this man lives in Texas, should he have to drive to a clinic in another state in order to carry out this “abortion?”
Tze Tze continues:
I want nothing less than the complete removal of sex from the equation regarding laws. By this I mean, that women have to be punished to the same degree as men for the same offenses and the ‘Pussy Pass’ needs to be rescinded. Additionally, I demand that women no longer be excluded from having to register for selective services. Draft has to be unisex.
Given that there hasn’t been a draft for decades, and that it has been feminists, not MRAs, who have been pushing for women to have the same rights to serve as men, I’m not sure this is the gigantic CHECKMATE FEMINISTS issue you think it is.
Tze Tze’s next proposal is a doozy. Indeed, it’s positively Anthony Zarat-esque in its audacity:
A complete segregation in society with regards to schooling and work. By this I mean girl only and boy only schools combined with appropriate education methods tailored to the respective sex’s natural inclinations. With regards to work I mean creating – as best possible – companies that are male only or female only.
Wait, what?
If Feminism’s claim that women can do everything men can do holds water women shouldn’t have a problem with this since it gives them an excellent opportunity to demonstrate this claim by *deeds* not words. Likewise, I am convinced that men – undistracted by the actions of women and without the necessity to sugarcoat everything they say and abide to a totalitarian politically correct behavioural code – can achieve far better performance than we have at present.
Oh, but Tze Tze isn’t done yet. He also demands:
The creation of male only and female only healthcare, pension funds and other social benefit schemes. And here again I say to Feminists who might have a problem with this: put your money where your mouth is. If women are naturally superior at basically everything – as claimed by Feminism – they should be delighted to no longer have to “carry the burden of the inferior male”.
Yeah, I don’t know many feminists who actually think that women are “naturally superior at basically everything,” or who even think about the genders in these terms.
It just seems a little odd that Tze Tze’s grand political program is based largely on playing a weird game of GOTCHA with the straw feminists living in his head.
And men for their part will know that their labour will no longer be abused in order to pay for the entitlement of western “princesses”. I for my part am convinced this would strongly increase the incentive of men to work hard, seeing as they would be sure to actually be able to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
I’m pretty sure “men for their part” — and even a good number of MRAs — would see your plan as pretty much the dumbest thing they’ve ever heard.
Tze Tze then throws in some garden-variety libertarian nonsense about reducing the size of government and “return[ing] to the US constitution, the original constitution.”
But it turns out he’s got quite an odd definition of democracy, as he then moves on to demand:
A complete reworking of suffrage.
Oh dear. This doesn’t sound promising.
I believe universal suffrage is unbecoming to any republic. When the mob rules democracy degenerates into a corporate circus, a cesspit where corrupt individuals bribe criminals to pose as politicians and the plebs is fooled and hoodwinked on every level.
Yes, “the plebs is fooled.” What kind of elitist can’t master subject-verb agreement?
As such more democracy is actually *less* democracy, and certainly…less freedom.
Black is white! Up is down! Freedom is slavery!
Cats are dogs and dogs are cats!
What I envision is a mechanism by which merit can be determined effectively and suffrage bestowed accordingly.
Presumably this wouldn’t involve a writing test. (See “the plebs is fooled” above.)
Hence, any individual would have the potential to acquire voting rights but only if he or she manages to demonstrate outstanding merit by, for example, inventing a useful technology, creating a successful business, creating excellent works of art, literature or philosophy (and thus demonstrating above standard wisdom). Naturally, this mechanism would have to be balanced out and its details worked out in a holistic sense.
Yeah, that sounds great.
It was nice of Tze Tze to suggest that women might pass this little test of his, but he didn’t mean it. A mere five days after publishing his little manifesto, he published a post with the title “Why Women’s Suffrage Destroys Democracy,” arguing that
Any country that thus gives women the vote is *inevitably* doomed to devolve into tyranny ere long. There is no other possibility.
Too bad, ladies! I guess the vote is too important to be entrusted to you, what with your love of tyranny and all.
Tze Tze moves on from the question of suffrage to another critical question of our age:
A widespread and stringent inquiry into the feasibility of a male contraceptive pill as well as an artificial womb. These two innovations are of pivotal importance as they will finally create absolute equality between the sexes – something women and feminists claim to support. As such I cannot see and will not accept any rejection of this basic human right of man.
Well, get to work on it, dude! As a man with a superior man brain I’m sure you’ll be able to have both of those invented by dinnertime.
Tze Tze then regurgitates some notes he wrote down while reading Warren Farrell — or while listening to some other MRA regurgitate their Warren Farrell notes — demanding
The undisputed right of any man to opt out of traditional male gender roles in very much the same way women have done. If women reject their role as sex objects then men should equally have the right to break their shackles and no longer act as status objects, as disposable instruments for the advancement of the Feminine Imperative.
Go for it, dude. Be as unsuccessful as you damn well please.
Every man should have the right to live his life the way he choses and *nobody* should have the right to shame him for his individual decisions. If a man doesn’t want to marry or start a family with a western woman (or any woman) that is his *own* prerogative and nobody has the right to judge him for that.
Dude, do whatever the hell you want. I would actually prefer it if you didn’t marry or start a family; you’d clearly be a terrible husband and/or father. Just don’t delude yourself by pretending that the women of the world actually give a shit about what you do.
Tze Tze moves on to the most important issue of all: the right to tell rape jokes in a crowded theater.
Either the complete abolition of all P.C. suppression instruments with regards to women’s sensitivities and their concomitant mob hysteria every time a man makes a “sexist” joke *or* the expansion of these same strict standards to include men as well. Basically, if it is not acceptable to make sexist jokes about women or portray them in less than flattering fashion in movies etc. the same applies for men as well.
Do you actually think it’s against the law to “to make sexist jokes about women or portray them in less than flattering fashion in movies etc?” Have you ever seen a movie?
So either stop demonizing men or allow men to likewise demonize women. Anything else is gross hypocrisy.
Well, you’ve declared women to be intrinsically inimical to democracy already, so apparently you were allowed to demonize women all along.
NOTE: In case any of you were wondering about the reference to Anthony Zarat above, he was an MRA who used to hang around these parts, and who had a rather dramatic proposal to solve all our pesky man-woman problems. This little video will explain:
They are pressed into service as border guards
When you can get pregnant, you can talk about your bodily autonomy wrt pregnancy and childbirth. Money is not your body.
This troll is so tl:dr my eyes are glazing already.
Speaking of teal deer, would anyone like to run a pub by this name?
(No, it’s not a real inn sign, I made it.)
You know that “clearly” doesn’t mean “I’ve decided that’s the case”, right? No? If you’d like to make a comparison between the draft (and registration for a draft and a draft are not the same thing) then I’m quite willing to listen. However, making comparisons between use of one’s internal organs for a life support system and paying for one’s offspring’s well being… not so much. And that’s leaving aside the fact that some women pay child support to their former partners.
Oh, and if we do end up on a draft vs. pregnancy argument please do remember that the Equal Rights Amendment would have required that women register as well, after all, equal rights.
Exactly. I keep making this point, but it bears repeating. Women and men have equal options and opportunities to avoid pregnancy before it happens. They have equal responsibilities to provide for the child after it is born. The only time period during which women have more options is when the child is literally inside of her body. If men were the ones who got pregnant, they’d be the ones making decisions about carrying it.
Also, it’s quite infuriating to hear you asshole MRAs bleat about paper abortions and how unfair it is that women get to choose and yet you also agree with our current Republican party when it comes to severe limitations on abortion rights and contraceptives. It’s almost as if your agenda is merely to hurt and punish women.
My SIL abandoned my brother and her two children….she decided she “never wanted to have kids.” After two years without getting a cent of help from her, my brother took her to court. She is facing jail time now as a deadbeat parent. The state doesn’t give a shit if it’s the mother or the father who is the deadbeat — they have a vested interest in making both parents provide for their kids to not overburden the ever-shrinking social services system.
I guess your oligarchy would have some mechanism for considering petitions from non-enfranchised individuals, right? Otherwise how else would you get them to look at your totally serious and important proposals regarding, ah, misandric legislation?
He is not being forced to support it WITH THE ORGANS INSIDE HIS BODY.
jeez. this is not that hard.
wuuut? WTF is the “female reality”? How can you tell it from the male reality? Is it pink tinged?
Classy in two ways
1) accusing your oponent (who Im guessing you assume is a woman) of being overly emotional = not sexist at all.
2) You can pretend you made a clear argument and just say everyones “emotions are getting in the way”.
I believe that this is bull. Sorry, was I accidently expresssing emotion? I guess my point is invalid.
Nooooooooooo.
No.
What, are like taxes an infringement on bodily autonomy for the people who dont wanna pay them? This makes no sense.
Im going to add on something Chie Satonaka said
So, Tzetze, do you think that a woman paying for a kid she helped make but doesn’t want to pay for is a violation of her bodily autonomy? Or just a man?
If he is indeed a teacher, he is a robot teacher, devoid of any emotion or compassion.
Next he needs to explain to us how “all taxation is theft” and about “initiation of force”, I think that’s what’s up next on the standard script.
Just *most* of them, right?
What exactly are we missing from the good ol’ days? Which pathologies are mounting and how is dysfunction increasing? Please, tell us more about how much scarier the world is becoming and how all of this can be fixed by sex segregation.
If I accept that “many” women think that way (which I don’t), how is that less valuable than being thought of as a sex doll? Both seem pretty shitty to me. Although I’d argue that men seeing women as living blow-up dolls is far more prevalent then women seeing men as “tools and instruments” (that’s a new one for me, really. I know there are some shallow women out there, but that’s taking it to a whole new, weird level that I’ve never heard of).
Is distraction due to sexual urges a problem in schools? Because this another new one for me. Do you really think most people are that horny, even as teenagers, that being in the same room as the opposite sex is interfering with their work? I doubt that distractions from girlfriend/boyfriend/crushes are anymore distracting then friends or bullies. In fact, I’d bet that friends and bullies are MORE distracting then dating and the urges that come with it.
I also can’t help but think that separating the genders for the purpose of limiting any awkwardness or sexual urges is going to have the exact opposite effect. You’re obviously going to interact with men/women once in a while still, how weird will that be for people when they don’t get near as many chances to even see the opposite sex?
I also am wondering how trans folk (and other equally not-as-simple-as-male-or-female folk) would be dealt with in these situations. It’s hard enough for them as it is, all this sounds like it would be a nightmare…
So child support paid by people whose income is produced by investments from inherited assets or a trust fund doesn’t cause you any concern seeing as no bodily exertion is required. That’s not what you meant, I suppose. You’d better find a better way to express the idea you really want to convey.
Or abandon the whole concept of money being equivalent to your body being used as a life support system for someone you don’t know.
TzeTze is just as boring in person.
I guess we’re just refusing to see his brilliance because ladyfeels.
Oh god, he showed up.
Oh god, his gravatar is the Thought Police.So. Much. Laughage.
Wait, why did I strike when I meant to italicize?
I cannot HTML today, I have the dumb.
@Falconer
You know when I first saw his icon I was wondering why he was using a Tom of Finland clip until I went in for the closeup.
wait, are the thought police from 1984? Ive never read that book, just heard people on the internet talk about it occasionally. and all the MRAs who say that using “xie/ gender neutral pronoun of your choice” is just like newspeak because somehow adding words to help describe things is exactly like trying to take words away to limit self expression.
‘Round here the father has to surrender his parental rights in order for the child to be adopted out. If the mother doesn’t want the child, the father gets primary custody.
Let’s try funding schools and paying teachers what their labor is worth, rather than blaming girls for any boy whose grades are struggling.
If you’ve had the experience with teens that you claim to have had, why have you not noticed that teens get horny with or without other peeps there to arouse them?
Also, those two paragraphs smack strongly of Stumbling Block.
What, every time? Birth control doesn’t fail? The father never coerces them?
Oh, I guess I’m defrauding my employer, then, because the work I do is to sit in a chair and communicate with people. I only sweat in the ass-end of August when the air conditioning can’t keep up with full-on day-long sunshine on my side of the building.
Have you never considered that those behaviors may have been learned?
@Tze Tze, are the following also violations of bodily autonomy?
1) pay cuts
2) two individuals being paid differently for exactly the same amount of physical exertion
3) fluctuations in the value of a given currency
4) taxes ($10 says this one is a yes)
I feel sorry for TzeTze’s students. Really fucking sorry.
I literally lawl’d.
The Thought Police tried to stop you!
… I … I thought it was Axe Cop.
@Fade: Yes, the Thought Police are from 1984. And whenever someone starts complaining about the Thought Police shutting them up (that is, someone calling their bullshit) I think of Monty Python’s Church Police.
Blaaah hasn’t all this been said before? What a bore.
Paper abortions…soooo in the interests of, ahem, true equality, they’d be subject to the same restrictions as a real abortion then? Like only being available in select approved establishments, needing to attend counselling, having to go to any compulsory scans, needing a second opinion, same cost, all that jazz?
How does having a bunch of boys grow up in or near poverty further the MRA cause?
Don’t your lot all harp on about how harmful it is to boys to grow up without a male role model, what with all the corrupting influences of the single mother?
How does making it easier to abandon your sons help men?
I’d rather read about real Glossina & Anopheles…parasite ecology is fascinating. MRAs are just kind of gross.
I thought it was Axe Cop until I moused over it, that is.
“Next he needs to explain to us how “all taxation is theft” and about “initiation of force”, I think that’s what’s up next on the standard script.”
Here we go. I knew it was coming. As soon as the fly tried to, poorly, I might add, argue that money is an extension of the body I knew we’d be on the fast track to propertarian bullshit. It’s only a matter of time before the fly tries to draw a false analogy between taxation and rape.
I’m going to go get a rolled up newspaper to swat with.
Damn, the tsetse fly shows up when I’m asleep! I wish he’d shown up when I was trying to get to sleep, because ::snore::
And Falconer, you’re still better at HTML than he is. He didn’t answer my question about why he used asterisks for emphasis (like on Reddit) rather than actually bolding/italicizing things, but I see he does that in his comments too.