Men’s rights activists miss the point
October 9, 2013
At my freshmen orientation, one memory stands out particularly clearly among the blur of a campus tour, class registration and endlessly awkward get-to-know-each-other activities. What I clearly remember is sitting down in a lecture hall to hear a presentation about the dangers of sexual assault on campus. The presenter shared the horrifying statistic that approximately one in four college women experience rape or an attempted rape. The guy sitting next to me took this moment to lean over and whisper his first words to me:
“Wow, I guess it sucks to be you!”
I sat there, relatively shocked that he made contact with me at all, but unsurprised by the statement itself. Yes, I thought, it does suck to be me.
This is at least true from a sexual assault standpoint, as it is for all women. While some men do experience rape and sexual assault, and that fact should in no way be invalidated, women are far more likely to be victims of sex crimes. Therefore, presentations such as these are crucial for incoming college students so they can be educated on the dangers of sexual assault.
However, according to some men, they may also have their downsides. Miles Groth, a self-described educator and men’s rights activist, recently stated his concerns regarding the declining rate of male enrollment in college. He particularly attributed this phenomenon to the “overkill” of date rape seminars at new student orientations.
“Some of the content of these seminars, which are now very common in colleges and universities, set these boys coming in, set them up as being potentially dangerous, and potentially harmful, particularly to women on campus.” Groth told Metro News Canada. He went on to blame reduced enrollment numbers on college courses that better reflect women’s lives and said men “don’t feel that welcome on campus.”
That’s quite a bit of absurdity to process in one paragraph. I’ll admit that prior to reading about this, I was unaware that a men’s rights movement existed. As a women’s studies minor, I find such a movement to be odd. I’ve never heard of a men’s studies class, but I figured that was just because most schools just call it “history.” I understand that men suffer from gender-specific grievances just as women do, but the need for an organized movement with the sole purpose of advancing the state of men continues to baffle me. This is especially true when this movement appears to be centered on blaming the work of women’s rights activists for declining confidence among college-aged men everywhere.
I get that it’s probably hard to see the truth when it doesn’t look good. “I’m not a rapist, so stop telling me that everyone with my gender is,” right? I imagine this is how the internal dialogue of men who are upset about a rape prevention course might sound.
Unfortunately, that isn’t the way things work. Someone is raping all of these women, and most of the rapists are men. Yes, it may be difficult to hear, but it’s much harder to experience it in real life. Education on the prevalence and dangers of sexual assault is meant to prevent students—male or female—from perpetrating this violence or being victimized by it. Yes, men may be presented as “potentially dangerous,” but that’s because they are statistically more likely to actually be dangerous. We all have the potential to be dangerous without proper education.
According to a 2012 study by Boston College, 41 percent of students believe that if a woman is raped while intoxicated, she is to blame. The study polled both male and female college students. Clearly, the need to increase students’ knowledge on what type of sexual behavior is consensual and acceptable is still in high demand. Spreading awareness of sexual violence is a huge aspect of the women’s right’s movement. The more someone knows, the more likely he or she is to step in and stop something from happening in a situation. To deny the necessity for such a program is to claim irrelevance of the topic.
I sincerely hope Groth is just an anomalous idiot. I want to believe the men’s rights movement has purer motives than just ignoring conversations that make men “feel unwelcome.”
I don’t deny the necessity to discuss gender issues related to men. For every example of gender biases constraining women, there is an equal and opposite one for men. Some result in negative discrimination, others don’t. But they all deserve to be talked about in the discourse of gender equality. Competing movements create the misconception that feminism only stands for the advancement of women, ignoring its true goal of the equality of genders. Both movements ostensibly want the same thing and acting any differently has a detrimental effect toward any kind of progress.
Marius • Dec 21, 2014 at 2:17 pm
I don’t care about feminist issues and what they do or don’t anymore. I cut women out of my life, don’t want them in my life. I just move on, there are so much more to live for which doesn’t include women and their feminist tactics. I don’t think it has ever been about what feminist wanted that pushed me from women, but its the they way they taught women to be towards men. Well I just give them their own shit attitudes back and move on, when it gets to women, the only time I really smile is when I hear them say, “what happened to all the good men” hahaha. The only point feminist have made to me that really matters, is that I’m better off without women around.
Angel Duff • Jul 24, 2014 at 9:48 am
Can you please point me to the following study listed in your article:
According to a 2012 study by Boston College, 41 percent of students believe that if a woman is raped while intoxicated, she is to blame.
john@ins.pl • Oct 12, 2013 at 12:06 am
I remember attending marches for the growing feminist movements in NYC in the 1970’s. Some male pigs would stand on the sidelines and shout out that such feminists hated men. They were so wrong – the women only wanted equal rights.
But times have changed, and I ask you Madison to lay down your sword and lay down your shield and really think about gender equity beyond the propaganda of Women’s Studies.
Men suffer the stiffer criminal sentence by 63 percent for all crimes. For all crimes, male sentences are 63 percent higher than for a woman.
Men die from the top ten diseases at higher rates than women and despite this, there are seven national centers for women’s health and none for men. Every state has an office for women’s health – only Georgia has one for men. Men die seven years younger than women. If this was reversed, it would be called a national emergency and yet another NIH institute would be created for women only.
We fund so many programs for girls in engineering and science but none for boys in reading – where the problem is worse.
There is no salary inequity – that is a myth. Men and women are paid the same for the same work. But if you want to look systemically, as some feminists do, and wonder why there is even differences in work hours and types of jobs, consider also, systemically, that men are 90% of all workplace fatalities and 70% of all workplace injuries.
Women say the media is sexist against them. But today, you see no unshaved male chests in movies, no facial hair and ripped abs. It goes both ways, but feminists rarely see that.
If a man has sex with an underage girl, jail is the most likely outcome. If a woman has sex with an underage boy, the most likely outcome is probation and a movie about her.
There is no patriarchy and never was. We remember that women were property and could not vote, but forget that if they comitted crimes, the husband was punished. And 100 years ago, black men could not vote, man white men without land could not vote. and we sent 18 year old boys to die in Viet Nam and they could not vote. Women alone did not suffer the lack of suffrage.
Female circumcision is horrible, and we ignore male circumcision. Yes, in some cases there are difference in degree and in surgical errors – but pain is pain and body mutilation is mutilation.
So now it has turned. And men are speaking up. And sometimes, they speak too harsly. And rather than step back while men are learning to talk. And it seems that YOU Madison, rather that be more willing to let men talk, stutter, stammer, and try to get the words out properly between themselves… YOU LAUGH, you mock, you stand on the sidewalks, no different from the men in 1970, the pigs, who mocked feminism.
You, in your arrogance, your blindedness, your self-centeredness (“I am woman, hear me roar”) are no different than those pigs.
bob • Oct 11, 2013 at 7:35 pm
Ms. Hopkins –
It’s understandable that you had not heard of the men’s rights movement before. It is a relatively new movement that has only begun to gain traction. I am glad to see that you recognize there are negative gender issues related to men.
There are no men’s gender studies classes, partly because men’s issues are not quite as large of a problem as women’s issues, and partly because this movement is new (there weren’t women’s gender studies classes in the 1950s, these things take a while). But I would hardly say that history classes are teaching anything about gender studies, nor are they the place for it.
The fact that men’s issues are overall not as large and harmful as women’s issues doesn’t mean that men’s problems should be ignored. There is no Oppression Olympics where only the “winners” get their problems addressed… we should try to solve all problems for everyone.
Men’s issues begin in school, where the mostly-female teachers are more likely to give help and encouragement to young girls, but treat young boys like unruly troublemakers who don’t learn as well. This means that men are less likely to get good grades, enter college, and graduate.
Currently, about 60% of college graduates are female, and 40% are male. That means women are 50% more likely than men to successfully complete college. I hope you don’t think this gap exists because men are all dumber and lazier than women.
One big mistake in your article is that MRAs see women’s rights activists as a problem. This is not true! Both sides want equal rights and fair treatment for everyone, and ought to be natural allies.
What MRAs stand against is radical feminism – which means “make things better for women no matter what, even at the cost of men”. For example, there are archaic alimony laws in Florida. Those laws can and do result in a divorce where the husband is legally required to send his ex-wife an alimony check every month for the rest of his life, despite the fact that they both make the same amount of money. Men filed lawsuits to get rid of this law that worked in 1900 but doesn’t work now, but it was opposed by certain feminists.
Rape is another troubling issue. Rape is a very serious problem for both men and women. You are well aware of how serious it is for women. But according to the CDC, men being raped by women is on the rise, to the point where nearly as many men are raped each year as women. When you include male-on-male prison rape, there are more male rape victims than female rape victims each year. But you don’t hear about that – which is yet another reason we need men’s rights groups. What I do hear about however, is men being expelled from college due to a rape accusation even when there’s no proof, because the standard they use is “if you can’t disprove it, then you might be a rapist and we can’t allow you here.”
Instead, college males are made to attend seminars where they are treated like potential rapists who need to be taught not to rape. This is no different than if there was a theft problem on campus, so they made all the black people attend a class that instructs them that it isn’t OK to steal. This is not the right way to solve problems in the real world… this only spreads stereotypes and offends people. It is not MEN that commit these rapes… it is RAPISTS that are responsible.
Men’s rights groups also have other issues to solve – like ritual male genital cutting (aka circumcision), men being required to sign up for selective service while women do not, men being provided with fewer homeless shelters despite being the majority of the homeless, men being provided with far fewer low-cost cancer screenings despite prostate cancer being 88% as widespread as breast cancer.
Meanwhile, these MRAs are held back in their progress by people who accuse them of hating women and wanting to bring back a society where males have 100% of the power, when none of this is true at all. Hopefully you can see that these groups have good reasons to exist and should be free to speak their minds on these issues… just like the women’s rights groups do.
actanonverba8 • Oct 11, 2013 at 7:27 pm
“Let´s see. First of all, Miles Groth gives a nuanced discussion of the general hostile atmosphere for males on campus and this one thing he mentions is toally cherry-picked to smear him and the Mens Human Rights Movement. Not surprised.
So, what are these seminars like? Well, they´re usually given from a totally gynocentric and femininst perspective, often by male feminsts. They have titles such as “She Fears You”. They basically shame these young boys and freak out these young girls by making males in general out to be ticking pathological time bombs. They´re highly offensive and amount to nothing less than mass psychological abuse of freshman boys and creation of irrational fear and discomfort for freshman girls.
How, I wonder, would some different types of seminars go over? How about some of the following mandatory 3-hour seminars that slam all the freshman girls: “He Fears You: False Allegations” , “Don´t Victimize Him: Stop Gold Diggers”, “Paternity is His Choice: Don´t Trick Him About Your Birth Control” How do you think those mandatory seminars would go over? How would Metro News Canada and Huffington Post report them? If they interviewed a campus feminist and she said that those seminars “isolate female students” would Huffington Post consider those to be “arguably controversial remarks”. The answer is no. Mandatory coralling of a bunch of kids into an auditorium to shame and put down the ones that are the “bad” gender is wrong. It´s not helpful. It´s not okay. It´s indefensible.”
actanonverba8 • Oct 11, 2013 at 7:23 pm
“41 percent of students believe that if a woman is raped while intoxicated, she is to blame.”
I DO NOT believe that for a second. I know how feminists deliberately manipulate “research” to push an agenda.
For example, normal, reasonable human beings DO NOT think that someone voluntarily having sex while intoxicated, as long as they are awake and alert, is a victim of any sort of crime whatsoever, and certainly not something as awful as rape.
But, feminists are more than happy to classify it as rape BECAUSE IT PUSHES THEIR AGENDA AND SHAMES MEN. Oh yeah, and the best part is that when they water-down the meaning of the word “rape” so much, they do so ONLY FOR FEMALES.
According to feminists:
1) A sober woman and drunk man having voluntary sex = no rape.
2) A drunk woman and a drunk man having voluntary sex = only he is a rapist.
3) A drunk woman and a sober man having sex = he is a rapist.
3) A woman forcing a man to have sex = no rape (feminists classify it as a separate category under “other sexual violence”.
Think I´m exaggerating? Go look at, for example, the 2010 CDC National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NIPSVS). The feminists built these man-hating tactics directly into the study in order to maximize the appearance of female victimization and minimize the appearance of male victimization.
Bottom Line: If you are a woman or man who cares about basic public policy and education on the truth, NEVER EVER accept any mainstream feminist-influenced gender-related statistics at face values. 9 times out of 10 there is a deliberate scam going on behind the scenes. Look for other sources that critique the statistics. Go find the original study yourself. Look at the methodology used by the researchers. You basically have do the job of reporters and academics for them if you want the truth because everyone is either afraid or uninterested in holding feminists accountable.
Phew. That was long. Thanks for reading.
PJay • Oct 9, 2013 at 9:14 pm
Th concepts of due process and reasonable doubt get tossed aside when sexist feminists draft laws. The Title IX requirements for student tribunals in cases of sexual assault or harassment are a prime example of this type of feminist bigotry.
Bad laws, though, usually result in big lawsuits. Let’s hope SDSU has money banked away for the day one of these kangaroo courts falsely accuses and slanders some poor man. Duke comes to mind.