thedukeoflions:

“Domestic abuse against men isn’t taken as seriously. Feminism ignores this.” Feminism recognises this because males are expected to be the tough ones in relationships according to traditional gender roles. The reasons males are ignored or not recognised as much within this issue is because of the traditional gender roles which Feminism aims to fight. “Not all men are rapists, I wish women weren’t scared of us at night just because we’re men. It’s unfair and sexist.” Feminism actually wants to stop this too! Feminism aims to increase education both amongst men and women that rape is unacceptable and consent is the top priority. The sooner this education is in place or improved where necessary, the less women will be scared of men! “Men are treated unfairly by the courts when it comes to child custody. Feminism doesn’t fight for this!” Actually, it does. Feminism wants equal treatment of all people regardless of gender - it just focuses that the inequalities come from the perceived “weakness" of women. Women are usually seen more sympathetically when it comes to divorce and child custody because they’re meant to be the mother of the children. Feminists want courts to be fair and give custody fairly regardless of what the roles of their parents “should be".

Oh, good, another one of those posts where someone rebuts their strawmen of MRA/egalitarian claims without a lick of evidence. Shall we, class?

1. The claim is that feminism perpetuates the idea of domestic abuse as something men do to women. Which it does. Not only are men not taken as seriously, there are actual laws and policies in place that make it more likely, in the West, that a man will be arrested when calling the police on a female SO. These Predominant/Primary Aggressor policies were pushed for by feminists, to protect women. They made it so that female abusers weren’t just ignored, they are assumed to be defending themselves.

Or, in other words, “it’s not abuse when women do it”.

There’s also the old “we’re fighting gender roles” chestnut, when “violence against women” is clearly important enough to address directly, as well as the roles behind it. Men’s issues? No, you’ll just talk about the roles themselves, not actually push for more recognition and support for men.

Here’s acclaimed feminist speaker Jackson Katz, at TED, gendering violence as male and victims as female, with only token references to other groups of victims and perps. Note the approval in the comments. Heck, Google for feminist discussions of it. Ask your pals, blind, if they see any problem with his speech.

2. So you want to stop the stereotype of men as rapists by…getting men to stop raping women.

Hang on.

Okay, I’m back.

When this nonsense is a widely acclaimed feminist article, it’s quite difficult to argue that feminism is actually trying to end the stereotype of men as rapists. Especially when the amount of rapist men is actually a small amount of men overall, and the people most spreading - and exaggerating - the idea that a woman is likely to be raped walking alone at night would be, drumroll please, feminists. Gosh, you get to create the problem and the “solution”.

You are aware that most rapes are done by someone the victim knows, in the home of the victim or perp, right? That men are much more likely to be attacked walking home at night, and victims of crime in general? Now, go back to that Katz talk. Notice who he keeps talking about as victims. Specifically, how it’s not men.

I also note that you don’t actually directly respond to the “unfair and sexist” part. Jeez, you control the vertical and the horizontal, but you’re still skipping the commercials.

Also, thanks for gendering rape as something men do to women. Just like feminism normally does, in fact.

3. A feminist created the Tender Years Doctrine on which the modern child custody/support system is based. NOW and other feminist organizations around the world actively support “best interest of the child” policies, as opposed to more egalitarian “default joint custody” policies, and they have for decades now. There’s also evidence that the screwing over is more about the state screwing over dads to increase its income. (You were aware that the state gets a cut of any child support payments, right?) Contrast that with your whopping zero actual examples of any significant amount of feminists actually doing diddly directly about men’s issues. For any of your points, in fact. It’s also odd that you’re trying to reframe this into oppression of women, when if the women didn’t want the kids, they could just give them up.

Oh, and speaking of weakness, when was the last time that you saw a feminist talking about the fact that women in the US military have lower physical standards than men? Standards which were likely implemented due to pressure to get more women in uniform. Guess where that pressure came from?

Go on.

Guess.

I also like how you don’t mention the erasure of male rape, which is kind of a big deal for MRAs I’ve seen. Oh, wait, that would be a lie too big, much like that one episode of Who, to claim that feminism is somehow destroying gender roles by repeatedly and intensely gendering rape.

That, or you don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about.

Which is always a possibility.

I mean, you could prove me wrong, fairly easily. Leaving aside the multiple times, from the 70s to today, that feminists have actually broken laws trying to suppress men’s rights issues, I’m merely going to ask you for an example of even a single significant feminist initiative that has ever given equal or greater priority to the problems of men. Just one.

Feminism was started by women to benefit exclusively women, and has never really seen fit to make the issues of anyone else more than a sort of sideshow. The whole “femmephobia” rationale some feminists use, the claim that all of men’s problems are really about hatred of women and femininity, is so ludicrous that it can be shot full of holes without even trying by anyone who’s disengaged their mental external inertial dampener, most obviously with the fact that women are punished less for being weak than men are. If a man is weak, he’s shunned and derided. If a woman is weak, it’s a man’s job to protect her.*

Then tell me why you think feminism is doing the job the MRM claims to be trying to do, when most feminists assume people talking about men’s rights aren’t feminists.

I’ll bet you won’t get past the first one.