| Zanten said:
I agree completely that there are serious social matters when it comes to the rights of men, which you yourself raised, and it IS something that should be addressed, and worked towards as a society. There have been instances of women, literally, stealing a man's sperm, impregnating herself, and then under law binding said man to provide normal biological father obligations, and their success rate in pulling this shit off is distressingly high. But what drives me crazy (and this isn't directed at you, for the record,) are when people bring up 'Well, what about men's rights, huh?!' not as an actual avenue to, y'know, PURSUE the issue and fight for the rights of men, or even really discuss it outside the current context, but just as this sort of 'Yeah, see, WE have things wrong too, so shut up and stop complaining girlies.' As in, they only show concern for the rights of men when there's feminists to combat, and largely lose interest after the spectre has passed. It isn't even strictly about rights, as the only time I ever heard a man bring up the sexualization or objectification of men, by women, was when he was trying to use it as a 'Well, THEY do it, so we can too!' while showing no signs that such objectification actually bothered him in the slightest. If a guy is ACTUALLY bothered by any sexualization of men, then more power to him, but when it gets thrown up as an excuse, it just grinds my gears. =P I would be entirely on board with a movement looking (in a calm, and reasonable manner, for the love of God,) to help support and advocate true equality, although I am super poor and uneducated, so my contribution is going to largely be limited to a 'Thattaboy?' and the occasional snazzy blog post. Equality IS something that needs to be strived towards, and neither gender is unequivocably coming out on top in every aspect, making 'Who's Worse Off?' largely a matter on which societal aspects one chooses to focus on. However, when the, as you put it, more militant feminists drown out the ones with actual, legitimate concerns (in the same way the Gamersgate Internet maelstrom drowned out a lot of solid discussion on matters such as gaming journalism ethics,) and then the militant opponents of the militant feminists ALSO jump in and clash with them, the Internet just collectively spins its wheels and makes helicopter noises, accomplishing dick all. -_- |
I have never agreed with a post harder. Not long ago I responded to a comment on how men are labeled rapist/pedophiles with little reason (and yes, it a response to the criticism of rape culture against women) and I pointed out how both genders suffer from such negative societal views. Instead of responding to the actual point of my post, the example I gave on how society condemns women as well was argued against instead. It was pretty frustrating, since I wasn't trying to blame any single gender and was attempting to advocate working together to fix these societal roadblocks. Unfortunately, it seems that people from both sides just want a clear antagonist and someone to point fingers at, even though it just creates a larger rift between genders and makes the backlash worse.
