Time for some reflection

Well ICMI19 is behind us. Well done to Alison Tieman and her team. I attended quite a few ICMI planning meetings although my contributions mostly concerned what had and hadn’t worked for us in the past. Like Elizabeth Hobson, I wasn’t able to make it to the conference for personal reasons. Alison twisted my arm a little bit but alas it wasn’t to be.

I thought this would be a good time for some reflection. It’s coming up on six years since I realised I had to take a stand against misandry and become involved with men’s rights. What a journey it has been. Lost friends, many new friends. Anger, frustration, and sorrow at the plight of so many men chewed up and spat out by a gynocentric society and its enablers just looking for a quick buck.

Among MRAs and anti-feminists (of the non-gynocentric variety) we have a core group of people truly committed to effecting change. We don’t always agree on everything but we’re mostly going in the same direction. Some people appear, make a bit of a splash and then either move on or burn out. Many potential volunteers burn out quickly as they become overwhelmed. We’ve analysed the volunteer successes and failures at AMRA and concluded that volunteers that tend to stick around spent time reading, listening and watching to understand men’s rights before they ever put their hand up to get involved. How much time did they take before putting their hand up? Between 6 and 18 months.

A few people in our ranks have appeared who I consider could be trouble for the movement. In all cases those people have moved on after realising they can’t treat men’s rights like their own little fiefdom. I’m sure some readers know who I mean. There have been quite a few.

Meanwhile, we’re changing the world. Slowly but surely. And we’re doing it without most people noticing. The cultural narrative has changed, and it will continue to change. Today we see words like misandry and gynocentrism being used in the wider community and even by public figures with no association to us. Wouldn’t have happened five years ago. Recognition that intimate partner violence isn’t gendered is going mainstream. It sure wasn’t a few years ago. Recognition that the earnings gap is largely a result of choices men and women make is increasingly recognised by the wider community too.

Of course the night is coldest just before the dawn. As was predicted right here at AVfM a few years ago feminists have ramped up the rhetoric as they feel their control of the narrative slipping. Expect them to get nastier as we gain ground.

Our strength though is our determination and endurance. When they push we push back harder. Onwards to ICMI20.