I owe a lot to Hanna Rosin. No seriously. I really do. Four months ago I couldn’t tell you who she was. I also couldn’t tell you who Warren Farrell, Paul Elam, Karen Straughan or the two dozen or so names were I’ve come to know over the last few months.
But it all started with Hanna.
It was Friday, January 3rd. I was killing a little time over lunch, reading over articles on The Blaze, when I came across one that sounded hilarious: “Time Magazine Presents ‘Five Reasons We Are Definitely Witnessing the End of Men’.” As someone who spends a considerable amount of time following conspiracy stories I’ve come to learn you can’t believe everything you read. But I thought the title warranted a quick look at the article. So I read it.
I would find out later that The Blaze writer did a fairly good job at conveying Hanna Rosin’s sentiment when relaying Hanna’s assertions about half the human population. Hanna Rosin had made the assumption that “Men are Obsolete.” In the weeks to come I would learn exactly how correct she was–and I was mad!
Initially, it wasn’t the revelation that men were on their way out that made me angry. At this point I was still convinced I was reading up on some crazy conspiracy theory. No, but I was mad at Hanna! You see it wasn’t the fact that she was making an observation and somehow conveying compassion over the subject matter. Any compassionate human would at least handle the subject with an ounce of tact. No, it was more like “Ha ha he he, men are going way of the dinosaur. Let’s uncork the champagne!
Here are the FIVE assertions she makes in her original Time article:
- It’s the end of men because men are failing in the workplace.
- It’s the end of men because the traditional household, propped up by the male breadwinner, is vanishing.
- It’s the end of men because we can see it in the working and middle class.
- It’s the end of men because men have lost their monopoly on violence and aggression.
- It’s the end of men because men, too, are now obsessed with their body hair.
She goes on to explain how boys are falling behind and not doing well at school. This is something I know too well. For years my wife, a school teacher in a bad location of Toronto, has been sharing her statistics on how boys have been progressively doing worse.
So I got working. Hanna Rosin had sparked my flame. Was there any truth to what she was saying? And if so why wasn’t the mainstream media covering any of this? Surely, 60 Minutes would have covered this years ago before things started getting out of control? No. Hanna was right. She was also an asshole for having the audacity to laugh at us men while we were down. And if she could, she would kick us while we lay there–for good measure! I was convinced she was an evil woman. I later found out she had a son. How could a mom glow at such a potentially dismal future for her son???
Now, a week had gone by and as the weather furiously blasted away outside I worked away inside. I was now a confirmed Men’s Human Rights Movement Activist. I was busy reading articles on AVFM and watching a ton of videos. I had swallowed the red pill and there absolutely no way I could go back. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to go down this newly discovered path. Something told me I would become cognizant of a lot of information I didn’t particularly want to hear. I was right. The movement had opened more doors than I had wished for. Some of these doors were very painful personal insights into my own past experiences. But at least now, instead of being buried within some deep dark chamber in my subconscious mind, I was dragging it out into the open and making some therapeutic progress.
And it all started with Hanna. On account of her, I now use every opportunity to talk to people about MHRM. I participate in social discussions and I also began my own blog. Recently I wrote an article on how Hanna had diminished the suffering of a mentally disabled boy by two older girls and how she showed no disdain for the girls who tortured him. Oh, I was no fan of Ms. Rosin and I had completely written her off–until I came across a more recent article.
I was doing research on a newly-released paper “The Sexual Victimization of Men in America: New Data Challenge Old Assumptions.” The paper will become one of the hottest topics for MRAs in the weeks, and months to come. It essentially confirms evidence that has been presented by MRAs for years, that men are about as likely to be raped as women are and that women are quite often the primary perpetrators. And as I scoured the internet for anything related to the paper, I found an article…..by Hanna Rosin!
Several things came to mind. None of them good. Before getting past the title I had already made up my mind on what was likely to unveil. Hanna had already decimated the story of the two girls torturing that poor boy. Nothing, absolutely nothing in that article, showed any compassion for the boy victim or any contempt for the girls who tortured him. Only compassion for one person: the boy’s mother.
But, I couldn’t resist, and so I read Hanna’s take on the new Research Paper and, well: it was good! She didn’t hold back anything or distort the facts to suit a feminist agenda. She didn’t question the validity of the study. She didn’t minimize the reality. Her title and subtitle were spot on:
When Men Are Raped
A new study reveals that men are often the victims of sexual assault, and women are often the perpetrators.
I agreed with every bit of it. Except perhaps for a moment at the very end where she attributes the emerging data as a consequence of feminism’s purported attempts to breakdown stereotypes. No Hanna, Men’s Rights Activists have been saying all this for many years only to be spit on and name-called by feminists, when not completely ignored.
But I really didn’t care about that. I was genuinely happy because Hanna’s post reached a hell of a lot of people – most of whom are probably not associated with the men’s rights movement. Her article (at the time of this writing) has been retweeted 2K and has been posted over 25K on Facebook! Those are impressive numbers. And either directly or indirectly the numbers are going to be difficult to ignore….especially by feminists. Feminists will have to face the facts. First CDC statistics–now this study–and now even mainstream media is taking a closer look.
This paper could severely throw the feminist agenda off course. With men no longer touted as the only rapists and women no longer the only victims the ramifications could have profound effects on the allocation of government funds. It is also poised to cast more doubt on an increasingly failing feminist movement.
I’m not sure I’m ready yet to bury the hatchet with Hanna just yet. But, I’ll give it some time and we’ll see what else comes forth. “You will know them by their fruits.”
