“The biggest problem with being against everything feminists stand for is that one of those things is women’s worth and basic equality with men.”
The purpose of “The Feminist Dissident” is to give feminists a chance to speak directly to my audience, and my audience to debate the issues with them in a civil manner. To read previous entries, click here.
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Misogyny on Men’s Rights Blogs: Why Does It Exist?
By Hari Narayan Singh Khalsa
First, I reject on its face the assumption, made by too many feminists, that MRA automatically means misogynist. It is an assumption that will not survive an honest look at a moderate men’s rights site such as Glenn’s. Most commentators here are interested in truth and justice, not putting down women. Misogyny does, however, seem to be more open in MRA circles than in the larger society.
It’s tempting to chalk the whole thing up to a few infiltrators, men not serious about men’s rights who attach themselves to the movement because they feel safer woman-bashing, than in, say, a Harry Potter Livejournal. While dedicated misogynists/armchair MRAs likely account for some of the total misogyny, their presence begs some important questions.
Why are these individuals made to feel comfortable and supported while they throw down male supremacy onto their comment window in time with their spittle? Why does everyone bullet-dive to the defense of the guy, even when he himself admits to unashamed misogyny? There is a sense that admitting misogyny exists undermines the legitimate claims of men who the system has wronged (the parallel to this, I believe, is the main thrust of feminist misandry).
It is human and understandable for those who have been wronged to turn to prejudice to some degree. A good portion of men in MRA communities have personal experience with parts of the legal system that have been unjust to them, and this seems to produce a lot of the perpetuation and acceptance of misogyny. It feels cruel to point fingers at them. All I can say is that their energies would be better spent in fighting legal unfairness, the other edge of which treats women like children or moral exemplars from a Victorian fantasy.
For the most part, victims of the legal system’s frequent female privilege do focus on that actual source of their misfortune. Human nature being what it is, though, they sometimes slather on their blame with a broad brush. Other MRAs accept it either because they don’t want to diminish the experience of these unfortunates and perhaps for other reasons.
The combination of shell-shocked divorcees and the occasional born misogynist is probably not quite enough to complete the picture of misogyny in MRA communities. The remainder of the strokes come from a thorough anti-feminism that characterizes the men’s movement. The biggest problem with being against everything feminists stand for is that one of those things is women’s worth and basic equality with men.
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5 Responses
As good a question would be this: why are misandrists made to feel comfortable in feminism when they throw down male hatred?
Pluck the beam from your own eye.
When men question feminists about the injustices that are done to men, the response that all mens rights activists are familiar with is that “That’s not the business of feminism. Feminism is about women. Form your own movement, organise, agitate and donate”
Well fine. That the mens rights movement sometimes resembles feminism more than it does a genuine equity movement is an incredibly predictable outcome of this attitude.
Womens worth and basic equality with men is not the business of the mens rights activist. It will not be the business of mens rights activists until such time as mens worth and basic equality with women is the business of feminists.
Posted on August 8th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Let’s try an experiment;
It’s tempting to chalk the whole thing up to a few infiltrators, women not serious about women’s rights who attach themselves to the movement because they feel safer man-bashing, than in, say, a Harry Potter Livejournal. While dedicated misandrists/armchair feminists likely account for some of the total misandry, their presence begs some important questions.
Why are these individuals made to feel comfortable and supported while they throw down female supremacy onto their comment window in time with their spittle? Why does everyone bullet-dive to the defense of the girl, even when she herself admits to unashamed misandry? There is a sense that admitting misandry exists undermines the legitimate claims of women who the system has wronged (the parallel to this, I believe, is the main thrust of MRAs).
Hows that taste? Pretty nasty eh?
Exactly.
TMOTS
Posted on August 8th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
“All men are Rapists”.(French). “No woman should be allowed to stay at home with her children” (De Bouvoir). Hey, thanks for those balanced examples of equal rights and modest language, Ms Feminist Icons, defended by Ms Allandsundryfeminists. I will try to match it so that Ms Hari can see where it originates.
Posted on August 9th, 2008 at 2:10 am
There is such broad variety in feminism that I do not believe it can be accurate to describe anyone as being against all feminism everywhere. I think it’s fairly often true that a reader can understand which brand of feminism is being complained about in context - particularly if they don’t start out with the fundamental mistake of interpreting “feminism” or “feminist” as a synonym for “women.”
But I know that confusion often exists, which is why I have become careful to clarify. If I’m writing a comment about man-hating lesbian feminists for example, I actually write “man-hating lesbian feminists” - expecting that there isn’t a single reasonable person on earth who thinks that all women everywhere are man-hating lesbian feminists, and will therefore understand that I’m not being misogynistic.
Such rules apply when discussing influential organizations like N.O.W., making the distinction between the goals of that group and feminists such as Wendy McElroy who are interested in equality.
Posted on August 9th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Women and Men are NOT Equal we are VERY different.
Time to remember this.
Posted on August 13th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
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