Why don’t men’s rights activists fight for men’s rights?

Submitted by Mastodon on Sun, 2016-08-28 05:18

Article here. Excerpt:

'Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) are a vocal bunch. They’ve got websites and social media accounts and YouTube channels, all dedicated to what they misname as activism for men’s rights.

But when their activism is only discussing men’s rights and masculinity in reference to feminism or violence against women, it’s not acting for men, it’s acting against women.

And men are in desperate need of help, so why are they being let down by the advocates who are supposed to be acting on their behalf?

MRA websites, and the comments sections on almost every article about violence against women, are full of men angrily disputing the irrefutable data on the disproportionate number of female victims in domestic violence. This is not activism centred on establishing services for issues that affect men, this is resentment that people believe women when they talk about the violence they’ve suffered at the hands of men, and anger that women are given the assistance they need to escape it.'

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Comments

Working against feminism is to be a counterfeminist. Working for men's rights is to be an MRA. But in MRA work there has to be an element of counterfeminism, as feminism specifically declines to uphold men's rights and actively works against them.

But the author has a valid overall point: The best defense is a good offense. MRAs could focus more on the offense than the defense and we'd probably get better outcomes.

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Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2016-08-28 17:04

Maybe the author of this article is unaware that MRA's try and do everything the author suggests, but they are banned from speaking at many places; and when they have been able to book forums on men's issues, they've had protesters block the venue, fire alarms have been pulled, etc.

Feminists are adamant about blocking the MRA's right to speak. So it makes perfect sense that MRA's would be against feminists, as gaining the ability to speak about mens issues is the first battle that has to be won.

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Submitted by Kris on Tue, 2016-08-30 03:30