While the general public tends to judge men's rights activism by negative internet gossip, seemingly everyone from politicians to average Joes go the opposite direction for feminism. They praise feminism so much that some say that if you're not a feminist, you're against equal rights for men and women. What's ironic is that feminists constantly sink to levels that MRAs don't go, not even in the most slanderous tales.
Yes, that is a challenge to prove me wrong.
Contrary to what some critics believe, feminists don't ignore male issues. That would be a welcome alternative. Here are a few instances where feminists lived up to the word "feminazi."
Hiding Facts About Domestic Violence
A quick Google search of the phrase "domestic violence" will only show stories, programs, and statistics where women are the victims and men are the abusers. It's easy to conclude that this is simply because men are rarely victims.
And that's what certain people want you to think.
Professor Murray Straus proved this in his report, "Gender Symmetry in Partner Violence: Evidence and Implications for Prevention and Treatment." His research shows that feminists have spent at least 30 years ensuring that domestic abuse statistics don't count male victims. Which leads to a lack of shelters for men, a lack of funding for any kind of support, and the masses not seeing any of this as a problem. The cover-up methods include, but aren't limited to, suppressing evidence, harassing researchers who disprove their agenda, and only using male criminal studies.
For example, Professor Suzanne Steinmetz wrote articles and books showing equal rates of perpetration by males and females. This resulted in bomb threats at her daughter's wedding. The report also points out that some researchers only ask female participants about attacks from their partners, and ask men about perpetration.
Threatening to Kill MRAs
Erin Pizzey, who spent over 40 years helping victims of both genders, can attest to the previous point. She addressed abusive women in her 1982 book "Prone to Violence," which was heavily censored. One editor got her blacklisted from English publishing houses for ten years, and books from that company were remaindered. Radical feminists would steal her books, protest her lectures, and send bomb threats. Erin would eventually exile from England.
Throughout the previous decade, Esther Vilar got the same treatment because of her book, The Manipulated Man. According to a 1973 *newspaper, "in the last 13 months, Esther Vilar has been spat on, shouted down, sued, picketed, threatened with bombs, and asked by a delegation of Englishwomen to leave the country." In Norway, militant feminists broke into her publisher's office and trashed the place. In Switzerland, bomb threats were sent to the bookstore where she was signing autographs. In her home country of Germany, she was beaten in a library bathroom by four women.
*After you click the newspaper link, you'll have to click 'Show article text (OCR)' to see the article. Then hold CTRL and press F to search for her name.
In 1975, she had a televised debate with famous German feminist Alice Schwarzer. Right out of the gate, Schwarzer was rude, claiming that her "friends" called the book either purely stupid or satirical. Her resentment towards the author only gets worse as the video goes on.
Since feminism allegedly does more for men's rights than men do, you'd think they'd be glad to see women uncovering the truth about abused men.
Protesting a Men's Mental Health Event... Days Before a Suicide
University of York planned to dedicate November 19, 2015 (International Men's Day) to men's health. A representative stated, "the intention was to draw attention to some of the issues men tell us they encounter, and to follow this up by highlighting, in particular, the availability of mental health and welfare support, which we know men are sometimes reluctant to access." Somehow, this offended about 200 people, including students, alumni, and staff, who signed an open letter condemning those plans. Surprise, surprise -- some of the signees mentioned that they were members of feminist groups. Ironically, one part of the letter says:
"The closing remark - ‘gender equality is for everyone’ - echoes misogynistic rhetoric that men’s issues have been drowned out by the focus on women’s rights."
On November 16, a student was taken to the hospital after being discovered with life-threatening injuries. He died soon-after, with the cause of death being ruled a suicide. Less than 24 hours later, the University of York apologized to those who were offended, and cancelled the event. The event that could have helped their students who were going through depression. Which is especially crucial, considering that males account for three-quarters of registered suicides.
Aren't you glad those campaigners gave a fuck about men's mental health?
If You Care About Male Suicide, You're Scum
That wasn't the first time feminists fought against suicidal men getting help. In 2012, Warren Farrell, author of "The Boy Crisis" and "The Myth of Male Power," gave a lecture at the University of Toronto. Among other issues, the lecture was about mental illness and suicide in men. 100 or so protesters blocked the doors, holding signs, and harassing students and cops. All the while shouting that men's rights activism is the hate group. You'll see all of that in the above video. One student said that two of his friends had committed suicide, and he hoped the presentation would help him understand why people get to that point. Another man was followed around by a woman who repeatedly insulted him for being there. Even people who didn't know Warren Farrell, and were there out of curiosity, were harassed. Here's a link to debunk the protesters' claims that Warren supports rape. This incident raises an interesting question. If feminism is about equality, then why do people assume that those who care about men's rights are not feminists?
Trying to Turn a Peaceful March Into a Violent One
The March for Men took place on August 25, 2018 in Melbourne, Australia. In the weeks leading up to the event, the National Union of Students Women's Department began planning a "counter-protest," as they called it, for the same time and place. According to them, the march was made to promote racism, sexism, fascism, rape, violence against women, and more. Maybe that's why so many men and women of different nationalities can be seen having a good time.
Plenty of March for Men attendees have posted videos of the event, and it's plain to see that it was a largely positive setting. At least until the counter-protesters showed up to heckle, make blaring noises through loudspeakers, and generally cause a disturbance. Thankfully, police kept most of them separate from the audience and speakers. Maybe you've heard about fights, arrests, and people bringing knives. What you probably didn't hear was that no one got stabbed; the knives were found during bag searches. You probably didn't hear that the fights were so brief that almost no one in an attendance of over 400 bothered to record them. And that maybe -- just maybe -- the mob of screeching liars who protested the event for no reason were the ones being violent.
Not that the facts would stop the media from twisting everything to paint the MRAs in a bad light.
The Film Feminists Don't Want You to See
That sentence best describes The Red Pill and the controversy surrounding it. If you've never heard of the documentary, it's about a feminist filmmaker, Cassie Jaye, who interviews men's rights activists and does her research on the movement. The result is that she walks away from feminism and delivers a fair, balanced look at MRAs.
But why? Why would anyone abandon their affiliation with this heroic, noble group of angels who want nothing more than for men and women to get along and be equal?
Maybe it was the fact that many Australian cinema owners banned it due to backlash. By backlash, I mean protests and death threats. Or maybe it was all the student protests to keep the film off campus. Maybe it was the way the media butchered her interviews. Maybe it was all the smear campaigns from people who have clearly never seen the movie, but get on TV and blogs claiming that it promotes violence against women.
Nah. Cassie must have been brainwashed or something. After all, MRAs are the real hate group.
Because They Say So
A favorite weapon of anti-MRAs is to screenshot social media posts where men insult women or ridicule male issues, and claim those guys speak for men's rights activists. Pay attention, and you'll rarely find anything proving that these men are MRAs. Meanwhile, we're supposed to ignore the times where prominent feminists flat-out stated that they hate men and encouraged misandry.
Take Andrea Dworkin, for instance. This "philosopher" was given a commemorative conference at The University of Oxford. Catharine MacKinnon, recipient of NOW's Woman of Vision Award, wrote a glowing article about Andrea, claiming that she deserved a Nobel Prize. Here's what she thinks of men and boys:
"Under patriarchy, every woman's son is her potential betrayer and also the inevitable rapist or exploiter of another woman." - Source
"Only when manhood is dead -- and it will perish when ravaged femininity no longer sustains it -- only then will we know what it is to be free." - Source
Here's a quote from Robin Morgan, who helped start the contemporary feminist movement:
"I feel that 'man-hating' is an honorable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them." - Source
Sally Miller Gearhart, who created one of the first women's and gender studies programs in the US, said:
"The ratio of men to women must be radically reduced so that men approximate only ten percent of the total population." - Source
Don't forget the author of the "2%" myth, which people still cite to undermine men who were falsely accused of rape. Susan Brownmiller used zero sources for that claim, and it's been proven that a lot more than 2% of rape allegations are lies. Here's what she wrote in chapter 1 of that 1975 book, Against Our Will:
"Indeed, one of the earliest forms of male bonding must have been the gang rape of one woman by a band of marauding men."
"From prehistoric times to the present, I believe, rape has played a critical function. It is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear."
But please tell us more about how some random guy disrespected women on social media. Don't forget to label him an MRA just because. Bonus points if you target a man who has spoken against men's rights activists numerous times.
Conclusion: Yes
Don't tell me that feminists care about equality when they're the ones going out of their way to shut down every form of support for men. To those of you who love to say "those aren't real feminists," and "not all feminists," the bottom line is that these people are calling themselves that while committing these acts in the name of feminism. We don't want to hear your deflections. We don't want to hear celebrities guilt-tripping people who aren't feminists, but never addressing the reasons why anyone would think feminism is bad.
We want more of you to either do something about them or shut up.
