So I found the “meme” below on the A Voice for Men Facebook page. It purports to show what the Men’s Rights movement is really about:
“Not what you were told to believe, huh?” the AVFM Facebook page administrator asks in a comment below it.
Well, no, it wasn’t.
Trouble is, the person who told me that the “Men’s Human Rights Movement” isn’t about any of these things was, well, AVFM founder and CEO Paul Elam.
Yep, in an AVFM post earlier this year — as I noted at the time — Elam went on at some length about the various issues the MHRM is doing nothing about, on purpose.
“So, what is this thing we call the Men’s Human Rights Movement (MHRM)?” Elam began.
Well, I can best start by telling you what it is not, from my own personal point of view. It is not about passing a Violence Against Men Act or any other form of government reliance on justice and personal liberty. … There are no plans to form a committee for research for testicular cancer or to build a men’s shelter. AVFM does not have a program to reform family courts. …
Neither I nor AVFM has a legislative agenda, nor any politicians to endorse, nor lobbying to accomplish because none of that is of any value in a society that still refuses to accept reality.
Emphasis mine.
As for the issues listed on AVFM’s mission statement, which include numerous items mentioned on the “meme” above, as well as an assortment of other allegedly “humanist” reforms, including “mandatory on demand” paternity testing, abolishing the Violence Against Women Act and “dispens[ing] with child support except in special circumstances?”
Well, as Paul Elam sees it, actually doing anything about any of these things is not Paul Elam’s job. Nor that of any Men’s Rightser.
Sure, if you look at our mission statement you will see many items that will require political and judicial remedy to ultimately accomplish. That, however is not our job at AVFM to accomplish directly.
So if that’s what the Men’s Rights movement doesn’t do, what exactly does it do? Elam is equally blunt:
You want to know what this movement is about? It is very, very simple in my opinion. The MHRM I envision is about one simple thing. Talking without fear or capitulation.
Seriously. That is it. It is about nothing more than people talking to each other, openly and freely, in a world that does not want them to.
I’ve helpfully modified the AVFM meme above so that it more accurately represents the official AVFM position on doing things.
Feel free to use this if you’d like, guys!
Or the one I did at the top of the page, if you’d prefer.
@Tessa
Wow, that’s a bit, wow.
Tessa
Mras: “Feminists don’t care about male victims!”
::a man jokes about his son’s rape::
Mras:”lol!”
Just like that time with JB. Keep being classy men’s rights.
So the whole grand plan is to be allowed to sealion, gertrude and talk over people? That’s it?
Okay, my image embed didn’t work. How do I meme?
There’s a men’s shelter in my home city and another (much needed) one on the way that will also allow men to have their children with them at the shelter. I guess Paul Elam would say that those have no value since they don’t help him bash women on the internet.
@EJ
[img]http://img.url.png[/img]
Make the bracket into < < and you’re good to go.
Oops, meant < >
Thanks Jackie. Let me try that again. Hopefully the joke is not ruined.
http://m.quickmeme.com/img/a8/a8bd3fee10fe8194d98a2f8bbb5c66a3cafa23966650442178e73c9f3dacb982.jpg
@EJ
Nope. Joke not ruined.
Thanks once again Jackie. You’re a peach. A banana peach.
Lea
More importantly, when divorce became easier, the rates for murder by women of their abusive husbands dropped like a stone. Instead of being stuck with no way out making them take the desperate route, they took the legal way out. And went.
Unfortunately, the rates for murder by men of their wives and partners has only declined at the same rate as all violent crime.
So something that turned out to be good for men, fewer men being murdered, came from women (and men) getting more freedom to leave abusive marriages. I’m not sure that Elam and friends see the linkages, but that’s what happened.
Well, that’s splendid then, because if their aims are to talk loudly about stuff and blame evil women then, they have achieved those aims.
Well done.
The fuck are male reproductive rights? A right to sex from women? That better not be what it means.
For a group of people deeply concerned with avoiding any kind of parental responsibility that’s just astonishing. These are all the same bigoted nincompoops, I bet, who sit around on their irresponsible asses admonishing Black men for being irresponsible fathers ( which they are not.)
Even if they did start getting active on important issues I wouldn’t rethink them because hey! they still spew hate and harm against women. That wouldn’t be correct no matter how many good deeds that practiced for men.
Lea: Also like to point out that Feminism helps to make women aware of abusiveness in a relationship and what to look for before entering into one.
These men don’t have any choice but to become stalkers of women who have, rightly, realized what they are and refuse to consent to having any relationship with them.
Now if we can get some laws in to protect women better from stalkers and other predators that will be yet another avenue cut off for them to seek out and harm women.
True, these men will still be abusers, but without many opportunities for abuse and that’s always a win.
@Lynn
Keeping sex partners from stealing their sperm, and the right to “have a say” in whether or not their partner gets an abortion.
Yeah…
Men already have reproductive rights. They match their reproductive systems.
I just visited my little brother a state over, and he’s having issues with the mother of his child.
She says it’s his, but he asked for a DNA test (just to make sure. He’s pretty sure it’s his, even though she was cheating on him. He saw the baby pictures and it looks much like he did as a baby) and she threw a hissy fit and denied the request.
She won’t put his name on the birth certificate, and she won’t let him get a DNA test to make sure it’s his child since she was cheating on him while they were dating, but she insists the baby’s his and is most likely going to demand child support from him while she’s living with her new boyfriend (I assume it’s the guy she was cheating on him with) and the baby that she’s refusing to let him see.
I’ve never met the girl, but I don’t like this at all. It’s really unfair of her to deny that he’s the father, but insist he is like this.
@PI
I’m not sure she can actually get away with all of that. She can’t get a child support order without going to court, and if he goes to court, too, he ought to at least get visitation. I don’t know if courts are in the business of paternity tests yet, but they ought to be.
He’s in danger if he doesn’t show up in court, though, and there are a lot of ways that might happen that don’t involve him purposefully not going. Good luck to him.
PI,
She can’t get support if she won’t allow paternity testing. Having told him he’s the father, I should think he can petition the courts to have the testing done. She sounds like a real piece of work. I hope he gets his answers soon. What a horrible thing to torment a person with. I shudder to think of the kind of mother she must be.
As far as I can tell, they are actually addressing them – “Return to Sender” – with a note inside the envelope saying, “Women: Fix this, it’s All Your Fault Anyway”.
Scented Fucking Hard Chairs- Mine too! I think we need to go to the emergency eye wash. We obviously got sprayed with noxious MRA crap. That stuff deadly.
http://www.hazsigns.com.au/images/products/500/EMERGENCY%20EYE%20WASH.jpg
That’s better! 😀 Now it’s time for the decontamination shower…..
*is deadly
@Paradoxical – Best of luck to your brother. He should be able to get a DNA test before the court awards child support, although if it is his the court can back date the child support order. Unfortunately for him, according to a friend of mine who works in child support enforcement, even if he gets a visitation order the mother can still stop him from seeing his child by being difficult. If he shows up to pick up the child for his visit she can refuse and there isn’t anything he can do short of going back to court. The police won’t enforce the order since it is a civil matter. I really hope my friend is wrong. Best of luck to him and the child.
IANAL, but I have a feeling “not putting him on the birth certificate” and “not letting him get a DNA test” might interfere with any plans she has for child support. If he’s not on the birth certificate and there is no positive DNA match, I doubt he’s legally the father, and if they were broken up by the time she gave birth and he’s never done any child care…
Well, it might give him the leeway to demand the test if she takes it to court.