'Advice Goddess' Amy Alkon picks another cherry

Submitted by axolotl on Fri, 2009-10-23 07:19

Anyone who has ever read more than a few of columnist Amy Alkon's 'Advice Goddess' blog posts knows that Amy has a tendency to report on Islamic 'oppression' of women while conveniently forgetting to mention that culture's wrongs committed against men. Case in point:

In her "How's it Hanging" blog post of October 20th, she describes how women in the country of Somalia are being whipped merely for wearing bras. Her post has a link to the original source, in the U.K. Daily Mail (news article here), and a little probing beneath the surface, i.e. clicking on the link, does indeed verify her claim. However, the same article also mentions a few minor examples of problematic treatment of men:

'Al Shabaab, which seeks to impose a strict interpretation of Sharia law over all Somalia, also amputated a foot and a hand each from two young men accused of robbery earlier this month...Abdullahi Hussein, a student in north Mogadishu, said his elder brother was thrown behind bars when he fought back a man who humiliated their sister by asking her to remove her bra...Any man caught without a beard was been (sic) publicly whipped.'

...

In all fairness to The Goddess, she does occasionally point out injustices which affect men and fathers, but apparently, for her, the world of Islam treats only women improperly.

The larger picture here is that since women in the West are not oppressed in any way, feminists and their sympathizers are forced to look ever further, in distance and/or in time, to find signs of oppression of females. And even these turn out to be phantoms (insofar as women are not being targeted based on any wide-spread misogynistic thinking), since attempts to judge other cultures and times from our own modern Western perspectives are nonsensical (i.e., they are completely bogus).

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Comments

If you factor out her columns on Islam, she is very clearly on the side of men. If you looked at all of her columns on Islam, I'd bet that you'd see she was at least somewhat neutral.

We can't expect any of our allies to strictly toe an ideological line -- feminists have that territory staked out already.

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Submitted by canaryguy on Fri, 2009-10-23 17:31

Amy Alkon is squarely on the side of men. She has pointed out many of the injustices that men face daily. In this column she highlighted women suffering under islamic militants.

The fact that she talk's about suffering that women are enduring and doesn't mention the hardships of men doesn't make her anti-man. She frequently talks about the hardships men face in society without talking about any problems women face. Does that make those articles anti-woman?

Male activists already have enough enemies due to our views being generally unpopular in mainstream society. We don't need to alienate our friends as well.

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Submitted by insdel2005 on Fri, 2009-10-23 17:49

I'm not sure where I said she was 'anti-man'. But at the same time, we do not want to become like the feminists in that we cannot be critical of other MRA's, people perceived as allies of the movement, etc. In other words, let's not gag from within.

btw, did you guys bother to click on 'read more'?

-ax

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Submitted by axolotl on Fri, 2009-10-23 22:22

The woman is a good egg, if she focuses a bit more on what Islam does to women, that's to be expected as she is a woman, after all MRAs focus more on what society does to men. Alkon is generally on our side so i am inclined to let this slide.

----------------------
Rise, Rebel, Resist.

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Submitted by MichaelClaymore on Fri, 2009-10-23 23:13

... as advice columnists go, Amy is pretty fair. We cannot expect everyone to be perfect since of course none of us are. Overall Amy is much more fair-minded toward men than the typical columnist, male or female.

'Tis a sign of maturity that we can endure criticism whether we feel it is deserved or not, from friend and foe alike. Also we need not agree with everything a friend says and still be their friend. If I dissed everyone I disagreed with, well, I'd be utterly friendless. :)

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Submitted by Matt on Fri, 2009-10-23 23:40

we do not want to become like the feminists in that we cannot be critical of other MRA's, people perceived as allies of the movement, etc. In other words, let's not gag from within.

-ax

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Submitted by axolotl on Sat, 2009-10-24 00:54

We must distinguish between our allies and our friends. In WWII, the U.S. and the U.K. were friends, and both were allies of the Soviet Union. Like Cathy Young, I'd classify Amy Alkon as an ally. The MRM, surrounded by powerful enemies and so used to female hostility, virtually falls in love when it encounters fair-minded women. But make no mistake, most are not female MRAs in the sense of male feminists, and would be aghast if one were to suggest it. Though they might make common cause with us on a few issues, many will oppose us on the rest. I've seen this phenomenon spectacularly among 2nd wives in the area of Fathers Rights.

We must welcome our ad hoc allies, but not expect too much.

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Submitted by Hunchback on Sat, 2009-10-24 11:33