For some reason when you say men's rights activism to people who aren't familiar with the term, they think it is something good and not something crazy and terrifying.

In theory men's rights activism shouldn't be something nasty that strikes fear into the heart of women active in feminist circles.

In theory it should just be men working on issues associated with toxic masculinity.

Men's rights activists could provide support for men who struggle with uncontrollable and inappropriate aggression, the inability to express emotion, and they could provide support for men who have suffered sexual assault and don't know where or who to turn to.

Those who understand what feminism is will understand that feminist groups do try their hardest to tackle these issues, and though they might not always take centre stage, in tackling patriarchal systems which disadvantage women, toxic masculinity will also be dismantled.

A lot of men though, are uncomfortable with their own issues not being the focus of attention all of the time and so they have broken away and set themselves in opposition to feminism.

These groups of men get together on Reddit and 4Chan and talk about how unfair it is to be a man in this world.

It seems mostly that women have once or twice rejected these men romantically, and they have never recovered and now hate all women.

Ostensibly they claim to stand up for men who have trouble getting custody of their children in family courts, or men who have been sexually assaulted, or men who suffer from mental health issues and don't feel they can seek help.

But mostly they just complain that sometimes men are shown as being dopey in films and that women aren't like vending machines you put kindness tokens into and receive love and affection in return.

These men think we live in a world where women are the dominant force, and men are lowly, disadvantaged and oppressed by feminist ''double talk'' and propaganda.

These are the kind of men who boycotted 'Mad Max: Fury Road' because there were too many strong women in it.

For the most part, men's rights activism on the internet is just whiney and pathetic, but sometimes it gets scary.

There are frightening levels of entitlement that show up in these forums, with men talking about how they will get revenge on all of the women who have spurned them.

And some of them have sought revenge. For example, last year in Santa Barbara, Elliot Rodger wrote a 100-page manifesto on what the world should do to women and then went out to shoot up a sorority.

Shortly after, many other men took to men's rights activism forums to voice their support for this man.

This is exactly the kind of thing that scares women. We are not taking away men's rights - (white) men have not been systemically oppressed in the same way that women have.

Feminists are not trying to trick the world into a system where women oppress men in the same way that men have oppressed women.

Seeing men work themselves up into a frenzy about women saying no to them and getting halfway decent roles in movies is not only annoying but terrifying.

How are women supposed to live their lives when the lines they can overstep are so close together?

If men want to have their own spaces where they focus on issues that pertain directly to men that is totally fine, but these spaces don't need to be an attack on women.

What men, white men in particular, need to remember when they think their rights are in jeopardy is that the world literally exists as a space for them, a space that sticks up for their rights, and women trying to get a slice of the pie is hardly going to ruin their lives.

Millie Lovelock is a Dunedin student.