Mirriam-Webster MOVEMENT

a : tendency, trend

b : a series of organized activities working toward an objective. The Farlex Free Dictionary MOVEMENT

a. A series of actions and events taking place over a period of time and working

to foster a principle or policy: e.g. a movement toward world peace.

b. A tendency or trend: e.g. a movement toward larger kitchens.

The First Wave of the Men’s Rights Movement:

The Men’s Rights Movement (MRM) consists of groups or individuals fighting for improved social and legal rights for men. Historically these groups have consisted of men and women who agitated for corrections to anti-male laws, the reinforcement of men’s right to live traditional or alternative male roles if they so chose, and to challenge the growing misandry that was attacking that freedom of choice via its manipulation of the social and legal environment. The accompanying and no less important of its aims has been to challenge the gynocentric customs rooted in mainstream culture which have reinforced sexist attitudes.

The following is a small sampling of men’s rights initiatives constituting the first wave of the men’s rights movement, a list that could be easily expanded into thousands of initiatives by the diligent researcher. Bear in mind that although we are talking of a single MRM, it is more accurately defined as the aggregate of separate MRM initiatives:

After the publication of Warren Farrell’s book The Myth of Male Power in 1993, men’s rights initiatives proliferated until the formation of A Voice for Men in 2009 which represents the beginning of the second wave of the MRM.



The Second-Wave of the Men’s (Human) Rights Movement:

Founded by men’s rights advocate Paul Elam, A Voice for Men has become a global platform for promoting awareness of, and advocacy for men’s human rights issues,4 and is the largest organization of it’s kind to-date. While it continues to advocate for most of the traditional concerns of the MHRM, it has deepened its understanding of those concerns and sufficiently developed its approach to them to be considered a legitimate second wave of the movement. For example the second wave is:

Nationally and internationally networked (as opposed to the poorly networked 1st wave); Inclusive of all: women, men, straight and gay, trans, white, black are actively involved (as opposed to predominant hetero white male of the 1st wave); Strictly anti violence (as opposed to occasional violence tolerance of 1st wave) Anti-domination of MRM by traditionalist assumptions (which dominated 1st wave); Anti-domination by partisan politics (1st wave was dominated by right wing sentiment); Inclusive of people of all faiths while having zero tolerance for proselytizers (1st wave had slight dominance by Western religion); Are generally anti-feminist, anti-gynocentrism, and anti-misandry (in unison with the first wave) with the addition of being more broadly oriented to human rights principles; Are more committed to building bridges between the MHRM and the general community (unlike 1st wave); Have elaborated a more thorough socio-political history of misandry and gynocentrism (unlike the patchy attempts of 1st wave); Have developed a more sophisticated discourse about sexual/psychological/social/political issues to inform the basis of the MRM (more than 1st wave) Focuses it’s activism on changing cultural narratives over lobbying officials to change laws (first wave), based on the principle that laws are usually altered to align with prevailing cultural expectations.

In contrast to lobbying legislators and requesting reforms to misandric laws (activism characterizing the first wave), the second wave has seen activism shift toward “changing the cultural dialogue” on social and mainstream media, with the understanding that laws governing gendered expectations are eventually brought into line with the prevailing cultural expectations.5

The principles of the second wave of the MHRM are not limited to the activities of A Voice for Men, and the signature principles first promoted by AVfM have migrated into the general discourse about men’s issues; principles such as inclusiveness, creating a wider and greater number of options for men, and an open acceptance of a variety of masculinities – including the rights of men to enjoy self-determination and to Go Their Own Way (MGTOW).

“Waves” of the Men’s Human Rights Movement:

The notion of ‘waves’ is familiar to us from first, second and third wave feminism. However our use of the term is not in any way related to the content or structure of feminist waves and is used here for metaphorical convenience as in ‘waves of soldiers’ or ‘waves of emotion’ to connote a surge of activity that is unique and yet related to another surge of activity.1

For the concept of ‘waves’ I employ the philosophical perspective of Alfred North Whitehead over Hegel. Hegel developed a progressivist dialectic model: eg. → thesis (gynocentrism) → antithesis (men’s rights activism) → synthesis (equality for all). This is the progressivist model implied by Bax and also by Farrell who describes a similar evolutionary theme in his writings: eg. → Women’s movement → men’s movement → gender transition movement.

The benefit of Whitehead’s approach is that it is a process philosophy like Hegel’s but, unlike Hegel, he insists that we do not leave the past behind us – we do not “progress” in the dialectical fashion described by Hegel. Whitehead proposes, rather, that the past always remains with us and informs all developments in the present. Thus by thinking with Whitehead’s philosophy the Men’s Rights Movement continues to undergo waves of activity, but they are not essentially “progressivist” waves.

Sources:

[1] Peter Wright, Welcome to the Second Wave (January 25, 2013)

[2] Robert St. Estephe, The Unknown History of Misandry

[3] Paul Elam, Entering a new ERA (January 30, 2013)

[4] Mission Statement of A Voice for Men (August 2014)

[5] Paul Elam, Changing The Cultural Narrative (July 2015)

Feature image by James Brandon