Mens Rights Activists

[Daniel Ferguson]

So, do these actually exist? I don't go to the comments sections of articles very often (a good thing) so I don't really know for certain, but I hear the MRAs are all up in arms about Mad Max Fury Road, so apparently this is a real thing? Maybe?

Or are they like an urban legend?

 

[JoJo]

They're real alright, look to "A voice for men" as an example of a MRA site. While there's some relevant issues tackled such as father's rights and the criminal justice system, unfortunately a great number of men's rights activists seem more focused on grinding an axe against feminism and women in general rather than genuinely fighting for men's rights.

 

[Thaluikhain]

MRAs exist, yeah, as part of the reactionary backlash to feminism. Every rights movement gets that sort of thing, it'd be very strange if MRAs or somesuch group didn't exist. Not to be confused with the PUAs and/or the RedPillers, however they are noticeably similar in many ways and there is overlap.

In regards to the anger over Mad Max: http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/2015/05/12/furious-about-furiosa-misogynists-are-losing-it-over-charlize-therons-starring-role-in-mad-max-fury-road/

Talks about the response on "Return of Kings". You probably want to stop reading before the end, cause it gets pretty bad.

 

[StatusNil]

Sure, some people are actively advocating for men's rights. As for "all" of them being "up in arms" about Fury Road, it's probably best to make a mental note of where you see these claims and remember never to take these sources very seriously again.

It seems to be a part of a trend to represent such advocates in a negative (belligerent, comical, trivial or a combination of all three) light. (Disclosure: I'm not one of these activists, but I certainly believe men, like all people, ought to have certain inalienable rights.) This may have something to do with an ongoing special interest "cause colonization", in which some FRAs (or "feminists", from the latin "femina" for "woman") are attempting to assert some kind of legitimate ownership over ALL competing interest advocacy, thus denying the legitimacy of the self-representation of other identity groups.

 

[Guerilla]

They're just as annoying as feminists and just like feminists they make mountains out of molehills about everything. They're part of the gender war cult that feeds off our worst traits as human beings.

The West should be bitching about the tiny inconsistencies that exist between genders, they should be focusing instead on the HUMONGOUS inequalities between classes. But that's inconvenient for the ruling class so the corporate media are focusing on this bullshit instead to distract and divide the middle class. MRAs are part of this cancer.

 

[Thaluikhain]

The West should be bitching about the tiny inconsistencies that exist between genders, they should be focusing instead on the HUMONGOUS inequalities between classes.

Even assuming that gender issues weren't as big problems, that's no reason to ignore them. It's possible to care about more than one cause at the same time.

 

[The Lunatic]

They're just the other side of the coin when it comes to Feminism.

Some are crazy, some have been through some bad times at the hands of inequality and some just want a little part of the word to be slightly more equal.

Just as with feminism, if you lump to the group together, you'll see nothing but bad things.


But, if you take it on a case-by-case basis, you might find some reasonable people on either side of this coin.


I mean, certainly, we could have a contest to see who is more outraged, ridiculous Feminists being upset because of a Game of Thrones episode, or ridiculous Men's Rights Activists being outraged at a film I haven't seen and so can't really comment on. But, beyond being actors for those of us who bring pop-corn to our computer desks, there's little value in giving too much attention to such things.

 

[Guerilla]

The West should be bitching about the tiny inconsistencies that exist between genders, they should be focusing instead on the HUMONGOUS inequalities between classes.

Even assuming that gender issues weren't as big problems, that's no reason to ignore them. It's possible to care about more than one cause at the same time.

Ignore? Nah, we shouldn't. Pretend they're important enough to ***** about 24/7 while creating movements pretending as if inequality is the norm? We shouldn't either.

Take feminism for example. It's the movement that pretends that being a feminist means believing in gender equality... because apparently everyone else doesn't? And they use these lies while in reality they're promoting other bullshit like patriarchy theory, manspreading, sexist t-shirts, mansplaining, micrpaggressions, triggers and other PATHETIC shit whose only purpose is to stir shit up, whine and distract the middle class. Thankfully I haven't been paying as much attention to MRAs because they're not as widespread but from the little I gathered they're just a bad. They have the same victim complex pretending that society is ruining boys, they bicker and whine about how men are portrayed in entrainment and so on.

 

[Guerilla]

They're just the other side of the coin when it comes to Feminism.

Some are crazy, some have been through some bad times at the hands of inequality and some just want a little part of the word to be slightly more equal.

Just as with feminism, if you lump to the group together, you'll see nothing but bad things.


But, if you take it on a case-by-case basis, you might find some reasonable people on either side of this coin.


I mean, certainly, we could have a contest to see who is more outraged, ridiculous Feminists being upset because of a Game of Thrones episode, or ridiculous Men's Rights Activists being outraged at a film I haven't seen and so can't really comment on. But, beyond being actors for those of us who bring pop-corn to our computer desks, there's little value in giving too much attention to such things.

If you lump the group together you will see nothing but bad things because these movements produce mainly bad things. Because they've become so useless in today's society that they have to bicker about characters in movies and scenes in TV shows to stay relevant.

Don't get me wrong there is still injustice in the world and people are treated differently sometimes, they always are going to, but we can solve these problems together as a society, we don't need movements full of hateful nutjobs taking things into extremes, demanding and shouting at the top of their lungs and, in the end, making things worse for everyone.

 

[Lightspeaker]

People actually interested in Men's Rights definitely exist. I remember a year or so ago I was listening to the local radio in the car and they had a Feminism Activist and a Men's Rights Activist on to discuss domestic violence. Topic at the time was that a previously women-only hostel had been required by the local council to offer places to male victims because in that area there were literally NO facilities available for men at all in that area and a bunch of people were throwing a fit about it. They were discussing the problem of there being (across the country) literally thousands of women-only safe hostels and only a handful that accept men, completely out of proportion to the actual proportions of victims. There's also the very well publicised "Fathers for Justice" campaigns that happened with respect to men being inappropriately denied access to their own children.


However those kinds of people trying to address actual social problems have been maligned by being regularly associated with the lunatic fringe through this kind of thinking becoming popular:

MRAs exist, yeah, as part of the reactionary backlash to feminism. Every rights movement gets that sort of thing, it'd be very strange if MRAs or somesuch group didn't exist. Not to be confused with the PUAs and/or the RedPillers, however they are noticeably similar in many ways and there is overlap.

As for the Mad Max thing, not heard anything about it. Probably just a bunch of idiots getting angry over something trivial. It happens a lot lately.

 

[Thaluikhain]

People actually interested in Men's Rights definitely exist.

Being interested in men's rights, and being a MRA is not the same thing, in the same way that being interested in the ethical treatment of animals is not the same as being a member of PETA. The MRM, like PETA, is a relatively small specific group which people decide to be in. Merely having an interest in the nominal aims of either group does not make one a member.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Oh, they definitely exist... Deal with lunatic fringe feminists for long enough, and sooner or later you run into the lunatic fringe MRA's...

That's not to say they're all nuts, just that exposure to one kind of extremism tends to draw the ire of the extremists on the 'other side'.

(In general, talking about 'sides' with feminism generally would be dumb, but when you're talking about the 'radical feminists' and associated extremists, it very much does turn into one of those vile 'us' and 'them' situations...)

 

[Zontar]

They're real alright, look to "A voice for men" or "Return of Kings" as examples of MRA sites.

Isn't Return of Kings openly disassociated with Men's Rights? I remember coming across an article, I think it was on Polygon but I can't remember, which had a disclaimer stating that the site (which was the subject of that article) was not associated with Men's Rights.

OT: Yes, it's a thing, in fact here in Canada the biggest MRA organization a legal charity whose donations to are considered tax deductible.

 

[Lightspeaker]

People actually interested in Men's Rights definitely exist.

Being interested in men's rights, and being a MRA is not the same thing, in the same way that being interested in the ethical treatment of animals is not the same as being a member of PETA. The MRM, like PETA, is a relatively small specific group which people decide to be in. Merely having an interest in the nominal aims of either group does not make one a member.

I refer you again to the examples I gave in my post, one of which outright claimed to be part of the "movement" and one of which is by definition part of it. Personally I tend to err on the side of not actually assuming everyone involved in something which is trying to address specific imbalances (like fathers' access to children) is a monster. For the same reason I don't assume that every feminist is running about screeching about killing men.

Its worth noting that PETA is an actual group, not a general movement. One can be an animal right's activist and not a member of PETA, they're not the same thing (in fact if I WAS a big animal rights person I'm not sure I would be involved with PETA given the dodgy things I've heard about them in the past...).

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

There are some. Thing is there are plenty of men that support female anti-rape and anti-domestic abuse groups - and rightly so. But woman generally dont take male victims of rape/domestic abuse by woman seriously or use the argument "its not the same" which is sexist, insulting and belittles men.

There was an episode of Teen Mom where a woman was filled beating and choking her husband. Nothing was done and it was shown on the tv show. Now if it was a man beating his wife i bet the camera crew would have got involved straight away. Also, another guy told his mum that his wife beat him and she said "no way, she beautiful" as if being good looking men/woman are not capable of attacking anyone. I also read about a man who was raped by a woman at a party - he was way to drunk to push her off. He told a member of an anti-rape group and that woman didnt take it seriously.

When males grow up we are taught to be manly and not to hit woman. When we are adults we then feel embarrassed and pathetic when we do get attacked by woman as its considered weak to be beaten by a girl in anything. An most wouldnt fight but as we dont want to hit girls, especially if its a wife or girlfriend as there is a stigma about it - no one wants to be accused of hitting their wife or girlfriend.

Sorry for the wall of text. But woman need to support male victims of crimes as well as woman.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I refer you again to the examples I gave in my post, one of which outright claimed to be part of the "movement" and one of which is by definition part of it.

Sure, the first is part of it (if they identify as part of it), but the second is not unless they actually identify as such.

Hell, if merely caring about men's rights made one an MRA, we'd be seeing loads of MRA feminists.

 

[Zontar]

Hell, if merely caring about men's rights made one an MRA, we'd be seeing loads of MRA feminists.

I was under the impression that egalitarianism is the term for that on the internet, or at least that's what egalitarians seem to claim.

 

[wizzy555]

MRAs come in many types. Some are just fathers protesting for custody over their children.

Others are Men going their own way (MGTOW), who are men who have decided to shun long term relationships with women because they feel social expectations are unreasonable.

Others (at least in my opinion) are continuing the previously popular notions of gender equality such as second wave feminism that promised to change aspects of society to a more beneficial state for men too by eliminating certain social expectations.

And then there are just the people who anti-feminism (although I'm not sure if this really qualifies as "MRA").

Note: These people come in flavours ranging from perfectly reasonable to vile hateful people.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

MRAs do exist and many of them have been addressed by the Southern Poverty Law Center:

"Misogyny: The Sites

The so-called ?manosphere? is peopled with hundreds of websites, blogs and forums dedicated to savaging feminists in particular and women, very typically American women, in general. Although some of the sites make an attempt at civility and try to back their arguments with facts, they are almost all thick with misogynistic attacks that can be astounding for the guttural hatred they express. What follows are brief descriptions of a dozen of these sites. Another resource is the Man Boobz website (manboobz.com), a humorous pro-feminist blog (its tagline is ?Misogyny: I Mock It?) that keeps a close eye on these and many other woman-hating sites."

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/spring/misogyny-the-sites

"The Southern Poverty Law Center monitors hate groups and other extremists throughout the United States and exposes their activities to law enforcement agencies, the media and the public. We publish our investigative findings online, on our Hatewatch blog, and in the Intelligence Report, our award-winning quarterly journal."
http://www.splcenter.org/what-we-do/hate-and-extremism

From what I gathered they aren't much different (if any different at all) from feminists, some of them have a pretty good point (women recieve more child custody, less jail time etc.) but has a lot of crazy offshoots with idiots saying idiotic things (again, like feminism). The main difference is that while current media tells you that (current)feminism is good and the fanatics don't represent the majority, it treats MRA like the second coming of mecha Stalin and Hitler and highlighting the fringe groups as the norm rather than the exception.

Actually they are completely different from feminsism. Mainstream MRA's, have been addressed by the Southern Poverty Law Center for Misogyny, vs mainstream feminism does not support Misandry.