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Early in 2012, a feminist campaign emerged online which included a series of photographs. Each picture was of a young man or woman, presumably students at university and college. Each young man or women holding a sign which began with “I need feminism because..”
The reasons following these declarations were varied, and mostly incoherent.
- A woman in her 40’s : I need feminism because I have no other choice;
- A 23 year old man : I need feminism because I contribute to rape culture;
- A 29 year old woman : I need feminism because man is woman and woman is man;
- A man in his early 30’s : I need feminism because it shouldn’t be odd when a guy buys baking ingredients;
These are just a few examples, but the implied message of this campaign being that the gender ideology starting with F is the solution to every issue on every pictured sign. Even without any knowledge of feminism’s central dogmas – this is obviously an irrational claim, whether implied or explicit.
However, the mention of rape culture scores close to the heart of that ideology. Feminine victimhood, masculine guilt, and the never ending re-writing of law, domestic policy and acceptable public ethic in pursuit of that grievance’s redress.
In contrast to the irrational, scattered, but occasionally truthful hatred of the depicted reasons of the “I need feminism because” campaign, one man wrote a list of reasons for his need for the men’s rights movement. He posted this list online, where I read it. No attempt at description of those reasons will be made. They are listed below.
~JtO
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- I need men’s rights because when she changed her mind the next day, I went to jail for 5 years;
- I need men’s rights because I was the victim of abuse but nobody believed me;
- I need men’s rights because I am less likely to go to college, and if I do, I will make less money than my female contemporaries;
- I need men’s rights because the president sees the shrinking number of men in colleges across America as “a great success”;
- I need men’s rights because people question if I am a predator when I am alone with my child;
- I need men’s rights because a man’s appearance, height, and weight has a greater affect on his income than it does for a woman;
- I need men’s rights because saying “it’s impossible to discriminate against men in our society” allows people to discriminate with impunity;
- I need men’s rights because traditionally masculine characteristics are virtues not flaws;
- I need men’s rights because the likelihood of my death coming by suicide is four times higher than it is for women, though I receive little support;
- I need men’s rights because it is not considered bigoted or sexist to deny me a male safe space at my college by those who have possessed their own safe spaces for decades;
- I need men’s rights because it is assumed that a meeting of men in a male safe space is automatically going to devolve into hateful sexism and violence;
- I need men’s rights because broad gender-wide slurs against men are socially accepted;
- I need men’s rights because my life, career, reputation and connection with my family can be easily destroyed by a single, false and anonymously whispered accusation;
- I need men’s rights because when women stumble blame rests on society, but when men stumble it is their fault;
- I need men’s rights because in my physically demanding career, I am expected to do much more work for “equal” pay;
- I need men’s rights because it is fine to call me a “dick”, a “cock”, or a “prick” on the street or on television; a woman must never be called a “cunt”;
- I need men’s rights because talk-shows think it’s funny if I am wounded or sexually mutilated by a woman;
- I need men’s rights because while the rape of a woman is properly regarded as a crime, the rape of a man is funny;
- I need men’s rights because mutilation of male infants is considered normal – and those arguing for the protection of male infants from mutilation are regularly slandered as anti-semites and bigots;
- I need men’s rights because my sexuality is routinely characterized as violent pathology, rather than as a natural part of my human identity;
- I need men’s rights because women assume it’s my fault if I am assaulted by a woman;
- I need men’s rights because people think it is irresponsible to have me work around children;
- I need men’s rights because I have the right to the same sexual sovereignty given to women;
- I need men’s rights because I believe that the feminist idea that a woman in the United States is equally oppressed as a woman in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia in cruel and insulting;
- I need men’s rights because I should not be ashamed of my sexuality;
- I need men’s rights because women who find me unattractive will shame me can call me creepy for politely interacting with them, and they will be praised for this cruelty;
- I need men’s rights because I was sexually harassed by several drunk women twice my age and everyone at the party thought it was funny;
- I need men’s rights because my size and strength is commonly used to pretend that I am violent, which I am not;
- I need men’s rights because if I am small or weak doesnt mean I have a Napoleon complex;
- I need men’s rights because the type of car I drive does not give you the right to shame me or belittle me;
- I need men’s rights because I have the right to associate with other men without legal action forcing me to allow women, too;
- I need men’s rights because if I am assaulted by my spouse, and I attempt to seek help, I risk arrest, imprisonment and life-long censure – even if I do not defend myself, even I am seriously injured while she is untouched;
- I need men’s rights because I earned my accomplishments; they were not given to me by a fictitious masculine conspiracy;
- I need men’s rights because I have a right to be a father for my own children;
- I need men’s rights because, as a man, I am much more likely to be physically assaulted than a woman;
- I need men’s rights because I will be chastised as a coward, and a failed man if I do not sacrifice my life to save a woman in a time of crisis;
- I need men’s rights because laws exist that demand harsher penalties for men for the same crime;
- I need men’s rights because I have no lobbying voice in congress;
- I need men’s rights because, as a man, I am more than 9 times more likely to be killed at work than a woman;
- I need men’s rights because I am more likely to die young, and much less money is being spent on my health problems;
- I need men’s rights because, if I am killed in an accident, people will care less than if a woman or a child is killed. News readers make this clear every time they utter the phrase “women and children”;
- I need men’s rights because society believes that my life is worth less than a woman’s;
- I need the men’s rights movement, because I am a human being.
And finally, I need the men’s rights movement, because when I attempt to address any of these issues, my co-workers, my government, my media, my peers, my family, and the larger society I am a part of rises in unanimous voice to condemn me as a monster – simply for claiming my humanity.
