"The war on fathers" by David Kupelian

I liked how he discussed the problem of the war on fathers in the media, etc., including citing stats and so on. That part was fine by me.

Personally though, he lost me when his essay became rather rambling, which started when he began to insist on a connection between God as Father and fatherhood in humanity, as well as his preachiness. There is simply no evidence to show that the casting of the divine as being a male presence makes for better or worse outcomes in terms of people's relationships with their fathers. The history of peoples just doesn't support this idea. For example, paternity was greatly valued and men's roles in old Roman society prescribed and maintained for centuries, all while the Romans had a large pantheon of gods that they worshipped or at least acknowledged, who were personified as male and female. Same could be said for the Greeks as well as other peoples in classical and non-classical civilizations.

What the fuck is he talking about, when he says
"Mountains have been written about this feminist-inspired assault on men.."
Where are these 'mountains' in terms of books and periodicals..or is he merely referring to
comments in journals, op ed pieces etc; or crack-pot web sites.
About all I know of made generally available and somewhat widely known to the public is, "The Spreading of Misandry" and "The Legalizing of Misandry" by Nathanson and Young; Glenn Sacks' stuff, and Wendy McElroy/iFeminists..Camille Paglia has made a few comments; Hoff-Sommers' "The War on Boys", Warren Farrell to some extent; and of course the few valid MRA web sites such as this. If anyone on the board knows of others, clue me in (I'm not saying there aren't any).
If these amount to mountains, then I guess the material written about masculinity-inspired mens' assault on women would be incalculably large - perhaps filling the entire visible universe.
-Axolotl

I agree, at that point it all crumbled, and it's an absolute pity.
Check out the strange bit where he talks about men with earrings being "feminized". I have long hair, does that make me feminized? Are women with short hair masculized? He's embracing stereotypes there, and these ARE a real problem for many men.

Today's men should have the freedom to get rid of these cliches, just like women have. The movie "Alexander" wasn't great, but I liked the way it depicted men in ancient times. In some ways they had the freedom today's women have. They could use makeup, or try out a male sexual partner without being officially & finally declared gay. Notice how lesbian affairs of heterosexual women are romanticized in today's movies, while the same thing for men is still a very delicate matter. Or what about the fact that men are forced to wear trousers, why no one today would tell a woman to wear a skirt, and men have been wearing clothing like kilts and robes since aeons?

Women have a harsh side, men have a soft side and there are many different aspects of a character, it's not all black and white. The old Greeks saw no contradiction between kissing another man in the evening and slaying a bunch of them in battle in the morning in full accordance with Kupelian's one-sided idea of masculinity. Why should we.

The essay is a good example for why I find it dangerous to count on conversatives to support men's rights.

I agree that many mens rights organizations are to conservative or religous. Thats all well and good for other like minded people but the mens movement as a whole needs to welcome all men. Even the one's that religous groups and really far right wing conservatives are not open to including.

He is very intelligent and made a lot of good points, the first half of the article nailed it, I think it would inspire many men to open there eyes. Then he loses the secular audience by bringing in Christianity, I agree it’s observable that men do exhibit a greater degree of honor, loyalty, altruism, I do think its observable that men are more creative have a better understanding of humor (make a list of male comedians vs. female in your head) I just don’t agree that it’s divine, so much as nature, it may appeal to the Christian audience but it will turn off the rest and only add to the stagnating schisms within in the movement. If the only points made in the article were secular it would have been very powerful and reached a wider audience Christians, Atheists, Agnostics, alike.

I don’t condemn or judge religious people. I just don’t think the men’s movement is the proper venue to preach religious ideals.

Axolot I have yet to read this, but I have bought it to read.

http://www.amazon.com/Decline-Males-Unexpected-World-Women/dp/0312263112

Actually I now remember hearing of this one; perhaps I will read it after finishing "Why Men Are..". I like the review that "soccer mom" wrote about it.
Actually I have seen that person's moniker on a couple other related book's reviews, and I have a sneaking suspicion that "she" is really a man;)
In case anyone else is interested, the book title is
"The Decline of Males: The First Look at an Unexpected New World for Men and Women"
and used copies start as little as $2.88 on Amazon.
-Axolotl