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If you’re unfamiliar with Men’s Rights Activists (MRA), here’s a quick overview: It’s group of very angry, heterosexual shit-stains who claim that men are actually the ones being oppressed in a world that is being torn apart by equal rights, matriarchy and serial killer feminists.
In stark contrast to the group’s name, Men’s Rights Activists focus less (or not at all) on men and men’s issues and more on hate speech against women. In other words, it has simply evolved into an online community of trolls whose genuine loathing of women is nothing short of intensely baffling.
In fact, take a look at some of their well-informed opinions:
These are just a few of the softer examples from the most popular MRA websites - who actually have quite a significant following.
One might ask why they harbour such hatred. What could have happened to these poor, first world manboys that they can’t help but take it upon themselves to wish harm and ill to women the world over? Abuse? Mommy issues?
The answer is not that simple. Men’s rights activists came into being in the same way the Red October did:
No matter what society you live in, inequality is innately sewn into its fabric. We have created, continue to create and consistently perpetuate hierarchies – of all kinds. If it’s not race it’s gender, or sexuality, or caste, or wealth.
Every so often, this status quo is questioned. We’ve had revolutions – uprisings that worked toward the abolishment of slavery, communism and that retarded law that claimed that having a vagina meant that you couldn’t vote, lest you fuck up the garden of Eden again.
But whenever there is an imbalance of power, there will always be a continually amassing resistance against it. We’ve seen it in Apartheid, in U.S slavery, and we’re still seeing it with Syria. The resistance against patriarchy is no different. This is obvious in the tumultuous amount of backlash that feminists have received in their efforts to fight for equality. To the point that the word ‘feminism’ itself has somehow become dirty.
Why? It’s in response to resistance against marginalisation that cause those who are benefitting from it to stigmatise the underdogs. It’s in response to the disenfranchised speaking out that the privileged push down harder. When the voiceless create a noise, the group in power tightens their stronghold on the way things are. And it’s fascinating how quickly the privileged are willing to paint their own reality to preserve their status.
Social psychology 101 – in order for group cohesion, there needs to be an existence of an “other”, a “them”. By representing your own group as uniquely virtuous, you can easily de-humanise another population. This mentality is what makes it okay for normal citizens to do atrocious things. This mentality is what allowed Nazi Germany to happen, and Apartheid, and Rwanda, and every single religious battle ever fought.
This othering is what makes it ok to send up red balloons, protesting a ‘genocide’ that does not exist. It’s what makes it OK to say that women don’t get pregnant from legitimate rape. Or to say that homosexuals are ruining marriage.
It’s what makes denial acceptable when gender violence causes more death and disability in women, aged 15 to 44, than cancer, malaria, traffic injuries and war COMBINED (World Health Organisation).
And it continues to happen, because these people have allowed themselves to believe the steaming pile of bullshit they’re spewing in the wake of, what they perceive, is a threat to their own group.
By pointing out one criminal who happened to be coloured, or one woman who happened to be a radical feminist, you can call easily into question the integrity of the entire population. But whites commit crimes too and many men (evidently) radically hate women – but are never collectively called criminals or crazy women-haters. And that’s the structural bias that is prejudice.
My point is not that any group should be stigmatised, or their plights neglected. There is nothing acceptable about murder; whether it’s one person or a hundred. But don’t call it genocide for the sake of a misplaced sense of righteousness. And there is nothing less horrifying about abuse and rape experienced by male victims. But attacking women has never been the answer to it.
Just think about it, oh Noble Knights of the Men’s Watch. Take a minute, and think real hard. Then do us all a favour, and do some self reflection, and get your goddamn shit together.
Follow Malini on Twitter and read more on her blog.
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
In stark contrast to the group’s name, Men’s Rights Activists focus less (or not at all) on men and men’s issues and more on hate speech against women. In other words, it has simply evolved into an online community of trolls whose genuine loathing of women is nothing short of intensely baffling.
In fact, take a look at some of their well-informed opinions:
These are just a few of the softer examples from the most popular MRA websites - who actually have quite a significant following.
One might ask why they harbour such hatred. What could have happened to these poor, first world manboys that they can’t help but take it upon themselves to wish harm and ill to women the world over? Abuse? Mommy issues?
The answer is not that simple. Men’s rights activists came into being in the same way the Red October did:
No matter what society you live in, inequality is innately sewn into its fabric. We have created, continue to create and consistently perpetuate hierarchies – of all kinds. If it’s not race it’s gender, or sexuality, or caste, or wealth.
Every so often, this status quo is questioned. We’ve had revolutions – uprisings that worked toward the abolishment of slavery, communism and that retarded law that claimed that having a vagina meant that you couldn’t vote, lest you fuck up the garden of Eden again.
But whenever there is an imbalance of power, there will always be a continually amassing resistance against it. We’ve seen it in Apartheid, in U.S slavery, and we’re still seeing it with Syria. The resistance against patriarchy is no different. This is obvious in the tumultuous amount of backlash that feminists have received in their efforts to fight for equality. To the point that the word ‘feminism’ itself has somehow become dirty.
Why? It’s in response to resistance against marginalisation that cause those who are benefitting from it to stigmatise the underdogs. It’s in response to the disenfranchised speaking out that the privileged push down harder. When the voiceless create a noise, the group in power tightens their stronghold on the way things are. And it’s fascinating how quickly the privileged are willing to paint their own reality to preserve their status.
Social psychology 101 – in order for group cohesion, there needs to be an existence of an “other”, a “them”. By representing your own group as uniquely virtuous, you can easily de-humanise another population. This mentality is what makes it okay for normal citizens to do atrocious things. This mentality is what allowed Nazi Germany to happen, and Apartheid, and Rwanda, and every single religious battle ever fought.
This othering is what makes it ok to send up red balloons, protesting a ‘genocide’ that does not exist. It’s what makes it OK to say that women don’t get pregnant from legitimate rape. Or to say that homosexuals are ruining marriage.
It’s what makes denial acceptable when gender violence causes more death and disability in women, aged 15 to 44, than cancer, malaria, traffic injuries and war COMBINED (World Health Organisation).
And it continues to happen, because these people have allowed themselves to believe the steaming pile of bullshit they’re spewing in the wake of, what they perceive, is a threat to their own group.
By pointing out one criminal who happened to be coloured, or one woman who happened to be a radical feminist, you can call easily into question the integrity of the entire population. But whites commit crimes too and many men (evidently) radically hate women – but are never collectively called criminals or crazy women-haters. And that’s the structural bias that is prejudice.
My point is not that any group should be stigmatised, or their plights neglected. There is nothing acceptable about murder; whether it’s one person or a hundred. But don’t call it genocide for the sake of a misplaced sense of righteousness. And there is nothing less horrifying about abuse and rape experienced by male victims. But attacking women has never been the answer to it.
Just think about it, oh Noble Knights of the Men’s Watch. Take a minute, and think real hard. Then do us all a favour, and do some self reflection, and get your goddamn shit together.
Follow Malini on Twitter and read more on her blog.
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
