Mens' rights movement

[Flopsyfreddie]

Hi.

This is my first thread start, so hope this is the right place.

I am currently researching on sexism in schools and am trying to find an official website to the men's rights movement. The only thing i can find by googling is a forum or series of posts by the men's rights activism - which doesn't really seem to be what i am looking for.

Is there an official website (or one which establishes the official policies/aims of this group?)

I hope it is clear that I am not in agreement with any of their arguments, but I need an official line to work from.

Thank you in advance!

They aren't one group it's just an ideology. There are multiple groups with websites that call themselves MRAs. It often appears to have positive aims but in reality they are all just anti feminist groups who want traditional gender roles.

Thank you for the reply. That was the impression i was getting - I guess a bit like feminism is an ideology too as opposed to an organisation. I wasn't sure if there was an official group though too who spoke on behalf of all MRA-ers.

Thank you again.

Agree with its.

The 'men's rights movements aren't really sort of unified 'structurally' (well, why would they have to be?) so it's all a bit murky and open to really nasty stuff, ime.
So what is the detail of your research, OP?

I'm looking at impact of media on teen attitudes to gender. In a nutshell. :)

Then you might be best off looking at things like Reddit, Facebook, Twitter Buzzfeed and the like. Not only because teens use them a lot, but because the comments made by young people are quite telling as to the prevailing beliefs about gender. There are some websites which are operated by people who claim to be MRAs, but what they actually are is men who hate feminists, and while I'd be happy to help you, I'm not going to add to their clicks by linking, plus some of the stuff written on there about women in general I sort of expect abuse being a feminist, this is just about people with XX chromosomes is pretty nasty.

Oh yes, I'm a buzzfeed addict! Didn't think of reddit. Thank you

Got Daily Mail comments on my hit list too!

There is also a real concern about "sexting" and the lack of leadership given to the issue by secondary school safeguarding officers - the targets are girls, but any reason to say "they do it as well" is interpreted as viewing it as 50/50 which is stupid in terms of impact and profile.

I think that men and boys do suffer sex discrimination. For example my daughter had an excellent male nursery nurse who really struggled to get his first job. He also had mothers telling the nursery that they did not want this man changing their baby's nappy inspite of the fact the man was CRB checked.

I don't know of any groups that actively campaigning for the right for men to work in "women's jobs". Anti feminism groups is something totally different.

I think that many feminists are in favour of equality of the sexes and support men who want to do traditional women's jobs.

Men and boys do NOT suffer discrimination. We live in a patriarchy. Look up what that word means.

"Men and boys do NOT suffer discrimination. We live in a patriarchy. Look up what that word means."

Of course men and boys suffer discrimination. Not of the same kind as women do and granted that most of the problems that men face are down to the restrictive gender norms of patriarchy but they didn't set up the system any more than we did.

Same here ReallyTired. A friend of mine was so excited when he landed a job as an au-pair and was gutted when the family cancelled because the father just couldn't get on board with the idea of a male nanny. And you couldn't find a more gentle person than this guy.

Any boy who is outside of the subscribed gender norms (who doesn't like football for starters) is going to suffer a fair bit of isolation.

Men might not have set up the system, but they do perpetuate it, because, for the vast majority of men, it benefits them to do so.

"Men might not have set up the system, but they do perpetuate it, because, for the vast majority of men, it benefits them to do so."

That is a sexist statement if there was ever one.

Men just like women are individuals. Some men are lovely thoughtful creatures and don't have a sexist bone in their body. Some men (and even some women) are misogynist twats. Indeed many women support the partiarchial system. (Ie. doing all the housework for their men, in some countries circumising their daughters etc.) I believe that women facilitiate a lot of sexism and stetrotypes.

As a society we need to treat humans as individuals rather than making assumptions based on race, sex, creed or sexuality. (or any other ism that I have not thought of)

"Is that how you think it works? I don't."

Erasing prejudice and unfair discrimation does not erase luck. We can experience good and bad luck in all kinds of ways. Luck is very random and anyone can be hit with random terrible luck. (Divorce, deathof loved ones, illness, disablity, being a victim of crime)

However I feel that erasing all unfair discrimination and prejudice is what as a society we should aspire towards. Surely it benefits us all to have the best people in jobs.

My daughter's school is OFSTED inadequate which makes it hard to recruit good teachers. Her class has a very young male pakistani teacher and he is really gifted. He is imaginative and all the children adore him. My daughter wants to marry her teacher!

Many parents had reservations about having a "paki" and a "muslim" (horrible racist language I know) teaching small white children. Even I was shocked by how young he is. Infact he doesn't look old enough to shave, yet alone to teach. However I am prepared to admit that I was wrong. I am glad that my daughter has an effective teacher rather than the wet piece of lettice of a teacher who was there last year.

I feel that treating people as individuals is fairer than saying that "girls can't play football" or "Men can't be nursery nurses/ teachers" limits society.

you only have to look at the relationships board on here to see how many women are living in sexist relationships where the man sees no benefit to himself in changing that situation

buffy, this is an issue a get a bit confused about; maybe you could help?

I understand Reallytired's pov, but I also see the sense in looking at men and women 'as a whole'. I can see however that this 'as a whole' that we apply to men is split. There's actually defining men as a whole by using a minority - such as cat-callers, rape threat trolls (and worse) etc. These people aren't representative to my mind, but an extreme end of the misogynist spectrum.

What is true of men and women too 'as a whole' is that they support the patriarchy by acting in accordance with its norms - or society's norms, if you will. I think I understand that the latter enables and exacerbates the former, if you see what I mean. But it's two distinct ends of the spectrum isn't it? And women 'as a whole' are just as complicit in the day-to-day maintenance of those norms, even though they are the ones to suffer most because of it. Also we can call anything misogynist that reinforces the patriarchy. But that means, to me, that everything a woman does that characterises her as a woman under traditional rules might also be called misogynist.

Sorry, those are questions not statements!

Sorry, that first paragraph means to say that I think we sometimes describe men as a whole by using a small representative section.

..and sometimes you are goaded into doing it by a MRA troll masquerading as a radical feminist in order to discredit you. Ain't that right, dagee?

Yes, there are the people at the ends who do really bad or really good stuff, and a whole load of people in the middle who don't, but also don't speak out against it.

Feminism is speaking out against it. MRA groups should speak out against it too.

What tends to happen is that the MRA groups instead speak out against feminism, and blame us for the issues some men have.

I'm doing very well at framing my question so I'm going to have another pop at it!

If we say Misogyny is a hatred of women then that's easy to identify and there are lots of examples. However, it's not men as a whole that are like that and those people may be enabled by certain aspects of society, but are not representative of society.

However, if we say misogyny is anything that reinforces the oppression of women as a whole under a patriarchal system... well then that's pretty much everyone to some extent isn't it? Men and women?

I think the point is that there are men that are at the very bad end of the spectrum that make it so women do not feel safe in society to do their thing.

Same also applies re: career progression, housework, childcare responsibilities et al. I think it's also true men will occasionally get the thin end of the wedge from time to time, as in fact I have in one area. However there is a huge difference between having to suck up the occasional injustice and having to live in a system where the deck is stacked against you more often than it's not.

All in all MRAs come about from men who are usually frustrated by banging up against some barrier and it often relates to children following a relationship breakdown, putting on tinfoil hats and seeing a vast feminist conspiracy where none exists.