A few months ago I was in Los Angeles meeting with a partner and he was telling me how the day before they had undergone sexual harassment training. He mentioned that it made the men uncomfortable, and I asked why. He explained that it was because only men commit rape.

I found that interesting, not only because it is not actually true, but because if the falsely accused group were not men, I doubt the demographics of the perpetrator would have even been mentioned.

According to the US Center for Disease Control, the crime of Made to Penetrate (the rape of a male by a female) is reported as often as rape, and that doesn’t even include men raped by gay men.

Now, had the person giving the presentation been talking about another crime, say murder, would it be acceptable to say that people with black skin commit more murder than people with white skin? I would hope not, and if it did, I would walk out of the room, and hope that everybody else followed me.

So why is it unacceptable to mention true statistics about race and murder, and acceptable to mention false statistics about rape and gender? Well, probably because most men just don’t know the real statistics.

But what if they did? How would the other people in the room respond to the initial objection? I think we all know how that would end, and when it ended with the employee being ostracized, he (or possibly even she) would have a very good case for a sexual discrimination lawsuit against their employer.

What if some of the men were themselves victims of sexual assault? I know a lot of men who are, and the perpetrators were both men and women.

Like it or not, but a lot of men (and women) are turning to the Men’s Rights Movement (MRM) for a whole range of reasons.

Parental Alienation after separating from their partner

Many men come to the MRM when they discover that when they divorce, the laws which involve resolving custody of their children are seriously biased against them. Depending on the country, this can range from women being given sole custody by default (Israel), to giving favorable consideration for sole custody to the “Primary Carer”, code for mother (Australia).

Being a victim of and being falsely accused of Domestic Violence

Many men are victims of domestic violence, and even when they can prove they are victims, the system in most western countries will treat them as the perpetrator or cause of the violence. In Australia the government agencies explicitly say in their guide lines that if there is a dispute between what a man and woman say is occurring, the woman is always to be believed over the man, irrespective of the evidence to the contrary.

Fear of being falsely accused of sexual harassment and not being given a fair hearing

The fear of being falsely accused of sexual harassment is a fear that most men share, and that fear is justified given the militant rhetoric from feminists who regularly proclaim that it is good that men have this fear, even if they themselves have lead a life of exemplary behavior. It is not uncommon for men and boys to kill themselves after being falsely accused of sexual misconduct, even when they have completely proven their innocence.

Fatigue from constantly being vilified as a male

This is probably what is driving most other men towards the MRM. It is a realization that they have been raised to believe in, and support the idea of a social contract, and the realization that feminism has hijacked the social contract for the purposes of punishing and vilifying men.

Men are learning that they are just as likely to be victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, having spent a life time advocating for and defending women, only to realize that they are considered no better than a convicted rapist in the eyes of many women. The belief that all men are violent, and all men are potential rapists is a core element of many factions of feminism.

In some environments, even identifying as a Men’s Rights Activist (MRA), or somebody sympathetic to men’s rights, can result in the employee being ostracized, shamed and bullied, and with 70% of HR Managers being female, this creates a complex situation for employers, especially when many of these women publicly identify as feminists.

A few generations ago, if a man wanted to cut down a woman in the workplace when she raised a concern, he would probably crack a joke about it being that time of the month for her, and rightfully so, such a comment must have been really annoying to deal with, but yet today, women regularly do the same thing when they accuse a man of mansplaining.

So, as a HR Manager, what would happen if a male employee was speaking and a female colleague accused him of mansplaining, only to be told herself that she should keep her misandric comments to herself, or people will thing that it’s that time of the month for her?

Is one slur more acceptable than the other, and can one be sanctioned when the other is ignored, or even encouraged? I see this as being a real problem, especially if the HR department is dominated by women, and those women can’t see that one is no worse than the other.

So, if you are in HR, perhaps it’s in your best interests to understand exactly who you are dealing with when you have a male or female employee who has strong feelings on the subject of men’s rights. These people usually fit into one of the following categories (and sometimes more than one):

Men’s Rights Activist

A men’s rights activist, or MRA, is a man or woman who advocates for the rights of men. Most MRAs are men, but the movement is also full of women, and many of the leading MRA advocates are female.

MRAs include gay men, who see gay rights as a men’s rights issue.

Anti Feminist

Anti Feminists are men and women who believe that feminism is and/or has never been a movement that advocated for gender equality. They see feminism having squandered the opportunity for a more inclusive and harmonious version of gender equality where forced gender roles have been eliminated.

From my experience anti feminists know far more about feminism than most feminists, and have a stronger belief in gender equality than most feminists.

Woman against Feminism (WAF)

Most Women Against Feminism (WAF) identify as anti feminists, but differ from most anti feminists in that they do not necessarily oppose feminism on the grounds that it is discriminatory towards men. WAF women include Traditional-Conservative (Trad-Con) women who believe in traditional gender roles and oppose feminism for destroying a woman’s right to live within a traditional female gender role.

Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW)

Men going their own way (MGTOW) are men who believe that the best way to avoid the risks of relationships with women is to avoid all forms of long term commitment. Many of these men come to MGTOW having learned the hard way that they faced biases in the family court system when seeking joint custody of their children after separation.

MGTOW are described as a phenomenon and not a movement, and as such focus heavily of analyzing female nature for the purposes of avoiding being enticed into a long-term relationship.

As a result of this focus on female nature, MGTOW have a large glossary of terms used to describe women (and men) and the way they behave. Some of these terms can be obnoxious, but others have found their way into common use within the broader MRM.

The Red Pill, the Red Pill Rage, and the Red Pill Isolation

The term Red Pilled is used widely with the MRM to describe the awakening that men and women experience when they learn the truth about gender relations. The term originates from the movie the Matrix, in which the character Neo is given a choice between taking the red pill and learning the uncomfortable truth, or taking the blue pill and going back to sleep.

Once you take the red pill. you cannot go back to the blue pill world, and you must live among the majority of comfortably blue pilled people. This creates two well discussed phenomena; the red pill rage, where people become angry at the betrayal they perceive from having previously lead a blue pilled life, and the red pilled isolation where they feel isolated and vilified by the blue pilled world.

Why do employers need to know this?

Well, apart from reasons of empathy and equity, there is one really good reason to understand this, and that is that women and men who identify as part of the MRM are highly educated in the statistics and contradictions of modern gender politics and as a result they are very likely to speak out against feminism, and the mistreatment of men who are being vilified because of their gender.

As the MRM grows, employers should expect men and women to start filing sexual harassment claims; claims that have the potential to be heavily exacerbated by a failure of the employer to acknowledge or truly understand the discrimination.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic, a great film to watch is a movie called The Red Pill. This movie was made by a woman named Cassie Jaye who originally set out to make a documentary that exposed the Men’s Rights Movement, and found herself questioning her own identity as a feminist.

Another MRA who is also worth watching is a woman who goes by the name Karen Straughan.

Doctor Jordan Peterson also touches on a lot of issues that resonate with the MRM.