Haven't made a post in a while but was thinking about this topic yesterday and decided to go into it in a bit more detail. I've mentioned 'Men's Rights Activism' before but I did a little research and wanted to explain why it doesn't exist. These ideas also tie in with race and 'white oppression'.
What is the Men's Rights Movement?
According to Wikipedia, the Men's Rights Movement (MRM) targets male oppression and discrimination. Men's Rights Activists (MRA) see males as an oppressed group threatened by the "feminised" modern society.
What do men see as oppression?
A few examples include rape culture and the overgeneralisation that all men are rapists or men get falsely accused of rape* by angry or vengeful partners or some that believe rape doesn't exist. MRA also say that sexual assault and domestic violence happens to men too but the issue isn't as widely discussed and addressed. Another big concern of MRAs is that the court system supposedly favours women in divorce and child custody cases.
*False accusations of rape is thought to be less than 2%, like other crimes.
Why can't men be oppressed?
In society there is a power hierarchy, at the top of which is heterosexual white males. This is most likely due to the religious roots of England which were then passed onto other countries including North America. These qualities were seen as superior to others thus forming sex discrimination and well as race, class and sexuality discrimination. As this group has always been favoured, it seems that any sign of "discrimination" against them is picked up on and attacked.
"Why isn't there a white history month" "What about men's rights?"
Every event in history was white history, everything children are taught in schools is white history, everything we know and see was from white history because Great Britain thought it ran the world. A group in power cannot be oppressed because they still possess the power, women could form an uprising against men but it won't change the system. White people could claim discrimination based on race but at the end of the day, white people are still in charge.
Just because you are facing a sex or race etc related problem doesn't mean you are being oppressed. Sexism and racism have caused long term, incredibly damaging effects worldwide that need to be addressed now.
Why is MRA damaging?
The idea of men's rights and male entitlement is what causes a lot of the sex inequality in the first place. The Santa Barbara shooting I spoke about before was a product of male entitlement and men thinking they are superior and deserve everything handed to them on a platter. The fact that me saying all this might trigger the response "but not all men" reinforces this egocentrism. Being privileged doesn't mean you don't have problems, but understanding that there are bigger, more critical problems is vital. Feminism helps men too.
Oppression means prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or exercise of authority. Women are not in authority, therefore we do not possess the power to oppress.
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