Popular Misogyny Takeover: What Men's Rights Activism Really Looks Like

Popular Misogyny Takeover: What Men's Rights Activism Really Looks Like

by Bree Strough, published 9/24/2016

Content warning: Sexism, Misogyny, Rape, Rape Culture, Rape Apologists, Cuss Words, Genitalia Mention, Gendered Slurs, Violence against Women, Threats

Feminism, Feminism Everywhere

Feminism is gaining a lot of attention in popular media, enough so that it seems to be everywhere. Celebrities are often called upon to be spokespeople for what feminism is and for what it stands. Feminism is becoming trendy, and in some ways, that's not a bad thing (Vagianos 2016b). However, a lot of confusion remains among people witnessing this trend on what feminism is and how it is relevant to them. That's no surprise, however, considering how problematic popular feminism really is. While people like Beyoncé argue that feminism is for everyone (Vagianos 2016a), other "feminists" seem to practice a form of feminism that excludes certain groups and ignores their needs. Are those people still feminists? What even is feminism?

Some of the most popular feminists are a rather bad representation of feminism. Lena Dunham, for example, has been known to embrace a type of feminism known as "white feminism," a type of feminism that ignores the needs of women that are not white, straight, middle-class, and more (Ayres-Deets 2013; Blay & Gray 2015) Other popular white feminists include Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, and Tina Fey. White feminist rhetoric tends to mirror misogynistic rhetoric, meaning it talks about race issues similarly to how sexists talk about gender issues- and that's not okay (Kirkham 2015). 

Popular feminism, then, is incredibly flawed. To quote Sarah Banet-Weiser:

Popular feminisms rarely get at the complexities and contradictions within the long dureé of global feminist thought and practice-and indeed, the media platforms, such as social media and interviews with celebrities on which they are often expressed do not allow for that kind of depth.   So it is not surprising that popular feminist expressions rarely acknowledge intersectionality, or challenge the very structures of patriarchy. (Banet-Weiser 2015).

With this type of feminism becoming so popular, it's no wonder that so many people find it ridiculous or oppressive. But who, exactly, is being oppressed by this type of feminism, or feminism in general?

According to intersectional feminists, the answer is women of color, poor women, queer women, and all the other women ignored by white feminism. According to popular misogyny, the answer is men.

Men's Rights Activists

Opposition to feminism is nothing new, and in a sense, anti-feminist commentary in meme-like images has always existed. Political cartoons and other anti-feminist art viciously attacked the suffragettes and misconstrued their cause, for example. Yet modern anti-feminism has reached an entirely new form of ridiculousness: Men's Rights Activists.

Technically, Men's Rights Activism isn't new; Sarah Banet-Weiser pointed out that "Organizations such as Men’sActivism.org, or the National Coalition for Men (NCFM), have been around since the 1970s" (Banet-Weiser 2015). However, a new, more popular brand of Men's Rights Activism has come onto the scene, and it has been gaining almost as much popularity as feminism has.

The main goal behind modern Men's Rights movements sounds relatively positive. They claim to want to help end the problems that men face, improve the lives of men, and ensure the equality of men. That sounds well and good, of course, but there are a few big issues.

Why Is Men's Rights Activism a Bad Thing?

Banet-Weiser expressed a lot of concern about this new trend of Men's Rights Activism:

I read the webpages of these organizations and wonder out loud: Why have an organization that focuses on men’s rights, those same rights that have structured the legal system in the United States since its founding?  What is the need to gather together and become activists unless the participants of MRAs perceive themselves to be under threat?  What 'equal rights' need to be established for men, since almost all equal rights that have been established in the United States have been explicitly available to men? (Banet-Weiser 2015).

Obviously, men face a lot of problems. After all, black men are constantly facing police brutality, gay men are regularly victims of hate crimes, transgender men are often ignored in conversations about reproductive justice that personally affect them... so why would men's rights be a bad thing?

Those problems are happening to men, but not because they are men. Racism, homophobia, and transphobia are to blame for those problems. And Men's Rights Activists not only don't acknowledge the causes of these problems, but also the problems themselves! Their focus is like white feminism: it is all about the rights of privileged white, middle-class, straight, cisgender men. So what for rights could it possibly be fighting?

That's just it. Men's Rights Activists don't fight for men's rights. In reality, Men's Rights groups don't actually care about men. Instead, they care about one thing: ending feminism.

Men's Rights Activists, like many people who look at popular feminism, do not understand it. They believe it is some kind of man-hating cult that is taking away the rights of men. As such, to give men a fair chance in the world, feminism must be destroyed. 

Their argument holds no validity, however, and many male feminists are happy to point out (Hernann 2015). Feminism isn't about hating men, but about ending oppression against women and minorities. Feminism has regularly supported men's rights, especially the rights of black men, transgender men, and other minority men. Men's Rights Activists don't (Sargent 2014). Their idea of fighting for men's rights is a joke- so much so that Cracked.com had a field day mocking it.

No matter what Men’s Rights Activists think, feminism is not oppression of men.  The so-called oppression of men, or "misandry," that Men's Rights Activists claim to fight, does not exist. In a society that privileges men and creates social, political, and economic disadvantages for women, it wouldn’t be possible to have some kind of reverse gender oppression that harms men. This means that oppression against men simply because they are men does not exist in the same way that oppression against women just because they are women does exist. This doesn’t mean individual women do not show contempt or dislike of men, that women cannot hurt men, or that men cannot be victims of violence by women. However, these things are not the same as what women experience. Individual dislike of men is not the same as systematic, institutional oppression against women. And while it is true that feminism mostly focuses on the latter, doing so isn't in any way ignoring or dismissing the first (Khan 2016; Saxena 2015; Sorry 2009; Thériault 2015).

 Feminists regularly speak out against abuse of men, advocate for male rape victims, and more. In other words, feminists do not hate men and feminism is not an anti-male movement. Any argument that can be used to "prove" feminism is anti-men can very easily be debunked. Feminism helps men in a lot of ways, and men need feminism just like women do; just ask any male feminist (Krietler 2012; Plank 2014).

If MRAs cared about men's rights the way they claim, feminists would absolutely support it, because feminists want men and women to be equal in every possible way. But the current movement appears to be more of an anti-women hate group, making feminists everywhere agree that it is absurd and not worth supporting. 

Why Care About Men's Rights Activism If It's So Ridiculous, Then?

Why do feminists care about Men's Rights Activism if it is so obviously ridiculous? In short: because it is dangerous. Banet-Weiser expressed concern about it herself: "I also wonder about the danger of such organizations, and how these are deeply connected with other expressions of popular misogyny." And she has every right to be concerned.

Take a look, for example, at this image created by a Men's Rights Activist:

For those who don't know, Brock Turner is a rapist that only received 3 months in prison after having been caught in the act of raping an unconscious woman (Grinberg & Shoichet 2016). And these Men's Rights Activists are arguing that he did "what any sensible man would do" by raping her.

Men's Rights Activists are fighting for the right to rape, the right to use violence against women, the right to be misogynists, and the right to ruin women's lives. Yet they think that feminists are the ones who are hateful?

Misogyny has always existed in subtle ways that are hard to detect. This new version of misogyny is quite different, however.

The “popular” in popular misogyny means a more overt strategy, a no-filter “I can say anything I want” kind of rhetoric, regardless how violent and immoral. Branding often is facilitated by media platforms (think of how many corporations use social media nowadays), so it makes sense that misogyny would also take advantage of these platforms to rebrand itself as “ethics” or “men’s rights.” (Banet-Weiser 2015).

That doesn’t mean, however, that this will stay an overt, obvious form of misogyny for long. By using words like “men’s rights” and spreading this MRA ideology far and wide online, MRAs are in turn normalizing what they are saying. It is so common to see what MRAs and other anti-feminists have to say online that it is practically expected.

This popularizing of misogyny helps to normalize it, and that normalization makes it look as if misogyny is okay. By amplifying these sexist messages, Men’s Rights Activists are making their ideology look normal and acceptable. This means that men will more likely see their ideology and agree with it, and a vicious cycle will begin that allows these ideas to spread farther and farther. If these ideas continue to be mainstream, it will not only be harder for feminists to fight for women’s rights, but it will also be easier for men to believe that violence against women is acceptable. After all, rape is just a male right, isn’t it?

And, now, in the current climate, we tell each other “don’t read the comments,” or that the most vicious expressions are merely anomalous trolls, or as the Internet reminds us, “haters gonna hate.” But it is precisely technological access and a flourishing of a “public” culture of comments and feedback that makes this moment feel different-and feel differently worse than past moments.  The current climate is a substantively different mediascape: saying your wife’s coffee is bad, or watching a mainstream movie that not so subtly insists that the consequence of a woman choosing to have a career might be insanity, is qualitatively different from someone threatening game developer Brianna Wu, precisely because she dared enter into the realm of game development, with the comment, “I’ve got a K-Bar and I’m coming to your house so I can shove it up your ugly feminist cunt.” (Banet-Weiser 2015)

In order to keep the internet- and the world- a safe place for women, MRA ideology has to be combatted. “This means challenging the normalization, and the sheer popularity, of popular misogyny, and not shrugging it off as an inevitable expression of boys being boys” (Banet-Weiser 2015).

References

Ayres-Deets, A. (2013, January 14). Lena dunham 'girls' is white girl feminism at its worst. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from https://mic.com/articles/23205/lena-dunham-girls-is-white-girl-feminism-at-its-worst#.IYAvqkM6M

Banet-Weiser, S. (2015, January 21). Popular misogyny: A zeitgeist. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://culturedigitally.org/2015/01/popular-misogyny-a-zeitgeist/

Blay, Z., & Gray, E. (2015, August 10). Why we need to talk about white feminism. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-we-need-to-talk-about-white-feminism_us_55c8ca5ce4b0f73b20ba020a

Hernann, A. (2015, March 29). Let's talk about the reality of the 'men's rights' argument. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/03/lets-talk-about-mens-rights/

Khan, S. (2016, February 29). Friendly reminder: Misandry isn’t really happening. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://www.gender-focus.com/2016/02/29/friendly-reminder-misandry-isnt-really-happening/

Kirkham, A. (2015, September 8). When White Feminists Respond to Anti-Racism Like Men Respond to Feminism. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/09/white-feminists-anti-racism/

Kreitler, K. (2012, August 20). Why Men Need Feminism Too (Really, You Do!). Retrieved September 24, 2016, from https://everydayfeminism.com/2012/08/why-men-need-feminism-3/

Grinberg, E., & Shoichet, C. E. (2016, September 2). Brock Turner released after 3 months in jail. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/02/us/brock-turner-release-jail/

Plank, E. (2014, May 3). 23 ways feminism has made the world a better place for men. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from https://mic.com/articles/88277/23-ways-feminism-has-made-the-world-a-better-place-for-men#.ZvZFUJJAG

Sargent, J. F. (2014, June 3). 5 Uncomfortable Truths Behind the Men's Rights Movement. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-uncomfortable-truths-behind-mens-rights-movement/

Saxena, S. (2015, May 27). Dear 'crocodile-tears-mras', stop blaming women for misandry. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2015/05/misandry-is-a-myth/

Sorry, Anti-Feminists: There's No Such Thing as Misandry. (2009, August 15). Retrieved September 24, 2016, from https://factcheckme.wordpress.com/2009/08/30/no-such-thing-as-misandry/

Thériault, A. (2015, January 7). The myth of misandry. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://www.ravishly.com/2015/01/07/myth-misandry-misogyny-oppression-marginalization

Vagianos, A. (2016a, April 5). Beyoncé’s first in-depth interview in years is all about feminism. Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/beyoncés-first-in-depth-interview-in-years-is-all-about-feminism_us_5703dc89e4b0daf53af0e765

Vagianos, A. (2016b, May 3). How feminism became ‘trendy’ (and why we should care). Retrieved September 24, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-feminism-became-trendy-and-why-we-should-care_us_5727b5fde4b0b49df6ac0ce4