Fifteen diverse people signed up for KSU Men (KSUM) at the June 13 Ignition Tailgate event on Kennesaw State University (with a 16th member found elsewhere). We also discussed a promotional partnership with a LGBTQ student organization. — VZ
I posted a classified ad in The Sentinel, the school paper, that describes KSUM as a place where “we critique feminism for the damage it has caused due to its inherent hatred of males.”
In an effort to protect her brand, an unnamed feminist sent the email below to me verbatim. My response is best made public.
I am a feminist female student, and seeing your “Calling All Non-feminist” ad scares me.
The ‘hatred of men’ did not come from feminism, and is not a feminist ideal. Misandry is the distrust and hatred of men, which is what I think you’re trying to speak out against (and misandry isn’t a real organization or anything). Both feminism and misandry are two very different philosophies that originate from the severe oppression and violence women have suffered for centuries. As a female (being such an easy target for violence) it scares me to see men against feminism—something that attempts to better the lives and quality of life for both women and men/all sexes and individuals in general.
This article really breaks down what I’m trying to explain:
http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2012/12/reasons-people-believe-feminism-hates-men/
Here’s a great example of a feminist group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHJIRCAgIvU&feature=share
James Bond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkp4t5NYzVM&feature=share
And you know—if it weren’t for feminism women would not be able to really make any of their own choices or decisions (history shows that men always made those decisions regardless of what the woman wanted or how she felt about it, or how it would unfavorably affect her). If it weren’t for feminism, women wouldn;t be attending college, they would not be able to excel in their careers, they would not have the right to choose what they do with their own bodies (i.e. sex, forced rape, pregnancy), etc. Again, feminism stresses for equal rights among all individuals, both female and male, while also stressing the importance of having the right to choose. Not only that, feminism tries to protect women from violent crimes because until recently it was okay to rape and beat women.
And did you hear about Elliot Rogers? A guy who hated women because they didn’t give him their attention—for which he thought he was entitled.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/89905/what-elliot-rodger-said-about-women-reveals-why-we-need-to-stamp-out-misogyny
I highly recommend that you take Introduction to Sociology or Feminist Theory to learn the facts.
When women say they hate men, they usually say it for a reason e.g. domestic violence, rape, and fear of men doing those things—believe me I know. I am a woman who fears men for those reasons and more. It’s very frightening to be a woman especially when aware of all of the statistics, news reports, and women of whom I know that have suffered traumatic experiences because of the abuse inflicted upon them from certain (not all) men.
I don’t know why you feel the need to speak out against feminism (which looks like a possible misogynist group meet), but know that feminism fights for the equality of all individuals.
Definition: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feminism
Thank you if you read this.
Signed, A Feminist
Hello, and thank you for your email.
Advocating for men and boys entails opposing misandry and gynocentrism. I do not claim that feminism is the source of all hatred of men. But rational non-feminism emerged in response to hatred committed, enabled, or otherwise perpetuated by feminists. A discussion on feminism’s inherent hatred of males is worthy of its own book, but this website has more than enough information available for your hopefully thirsty mind.
Don’t worry, I will provide plenty of verifiable sources as I address the problems in your message.
First of all, you have no reason to be scared of something just because it’s different.
Men and boys are human beings with thoughts and feelings of their own, and the numerous issues affecting them (from violations of due process to workplace mortality and suicide) have not been adequately addressed by those professing to be for equality. They don’t need an ideology to share in the compassion of their fellow human beings, and crawling out from under feminism gives them the opportunity to think outside of the box.
That said, feminism is subject to criticism like any other ideology. Equitable feminists like Christina Hoff Sommers and the recently passed Karen DeCrow offer refreshing objectivity, but the individual contributions of “the good feminists” are drops of pure water in a polluted ocean that too few people bothered to clean when bigots littered.
Good apples don’t ripen the bunch, and the bunch is not defined by the dictionary (see #4 in the linked article).
As a female (being such an easy target for violence) it scares me to see men against feminism—something that attempts to better the lives and quality of life for both women and men/all sexes and individuals in general.
If we consider all forms of violence, I am far more likely to suffer violence as a man than you are as a woman. Popular stats that suggest otherwise are often exaggerated (e.g., “1 in 4 women are raped”). As a victim of mugging, I can promise you that it is not only women who are afraid to walk alone at night.
To say that you are an easy target is laughable. If a man hurts you, the public would seriously consider ending the man’s life either literally or figuratively. But if you hurt a man, you might get away with it.
You can punch a man in the throat while screaming that he tried to hurt you, and he will be cuffed unless he caught you on tape. But on campus, the “Dear Colleague” letter helps ensure a false conviction anyway.
“How Can She Slap” and the media’s silence in Boko Haram’s slaughter of boys are telling, as is your ignorance of the male victims of Elliot Rodger. In each of these cases, men bled more.
I personally called local media outlets at rallies in Dayton, OH, and Ellisworth, ME, and none of them bothered to cover the due process violations we were protesting. After witnessing other exclusions from the media, I learned other harsh life lessons:
- A man cannot peacefully protect his church from vandalism without being sexually abused by feminist protesters.
- A man cannot crack an innocent joke without a feminist getting him fired.
- A man cannot attend a speech about boys without being verbally abused by violent feminist protestors.
- A man cannot record corrupt individuals in a public place without being struck (by a woman associated with the domestic violence industry, no less).
- A man cannot be allowed even to THINK about anything other than feminism without a woman like yourself expressing fear that could be used to harm him.
And you’re scared?
I highly recommend that you take Introduction to Sociology or Feminist Theory to learn the facts.
Facts like “until recently it was okay to rape and beat women?” When was it ever “okay” to rape or beat a woman? The only times that would even come close to being true is when considering abusive adherents of Abrahamic scripture, or belligerents in politically unstable areas. And even then many of the victims of erupted violence still include men. Did you get your talking points from a KSU course?
My credentials are in order and are available on request, but I want you to actually ask for them so I have some indication that you care. I expect to see yours as well.
You try to be academic when your role models are anything but. When I interviewed Dr. Adam Jones (an international gender violence expert), he mentioned being opposed for critiquing feminist methodology and gynocentric media coverage. He was impeded by ideologues, even though his contributions led to a more balanced discourse. Dr. Janice Fiamengo was treated with similar disrespect by feminist protestors at the University of Ottawa, as were Dr. Paul Nathanson (a gay man), Dr. Katherine Young, and Dr. Warren Farrell at the University of Toronto. Our own Alison Tieman caught feminist professor Adele Mercier committing rape apology. Oh, and Mercier helped bully Fiamengo.
Feminists make an active effort to hide evidence in an academic setting, even if it means abusing degree-holding professors, gays, women, boys, or anyone else.
I brought Nathanson and Young’s scholarly trilogy on misandry to instructors, but none of them are prepared to teach the material. I know from first-hand experience that KSU has a massive blind spot, so don’t pretend you are educated after being instructed by the pedagogical equivalent of a Mobius strip.
But even if feminism was harmless and inclusive, there is still feminist non-action that shows why KSU Men needs to exist.
I have butted heads with KSU security from January to the present time auditing the Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) systems implementation at KSU due to questionable comments in the Sentinel. This involved multiple meetings with legal counsel, sifting through public financial documents, and struggling to get the simplest questions answered about how men are treated in the program.
Our goal was to make sure men and women were treated equitably between the RAD for Men and RAD for Women courses. In what we hope was a result of our efforts, KSU Security has started promoting RAD for Men and RAD Basic (for Women) in the same email blast. This didn’t solve the problems we have with it, but baby steps, right?
Quick question: Where were you? I couldn’t find you or any other feminist anywhere.
Let me share some other experiences you missed.
We want to rename the Women’s Resource and Interpersonal Violence Prevention Center to simply “Interpersonal Violence Prevention Center.” The IPV center offers services to men and women but is branded such that men don’t know that the services are available to them (I didn’t even know until the director told me in a chance conversation). Assistant Dean Dr. Bob Mattox told me that the IPV center has an aggregate function exclusive to women, with no comparable facilities offered to men.
This was an opportunity to lobby for an equitable presentation of institutional services and fix Title IX imbalances.
Where were you?
You have likely walked right by this poster about gender symmetry in domestic violence on the fourth floor of the Social Sciences building.
Somebody has gone out to do more research to make sure that both men and women are more equally represented in interpersonal violence (IPV) survey populations, which shows that women are not unilaterally threatened.
Where were you?
One time when I was staffing KSUM’s table, a feminist dropped off this hate note and then walked off without a word.
Where were you?
A Voice for Men has pooled money with the Canadian Association for Equality (whose video you cited), Honey Badger Radio, and other men’s rights activists to find the alleged attacker of feminist Danielle d’Entremont.
Where were you? Or any other feminist, for that matter?
You wrote that feminism is working for everyone. Are you sure about that?
It was only when you noticed non-feminism’s growth that you revealed your existence. The only opportunity you took was to protect your brand against the men and women who realized that feminism is not helping.
And you want to shove us aside so that feminism can take credit for the work we’ve been doing in its absence? You are in walking distance of the human rights missions we started.
Where were you? Where are you?
KSUM has ads everywhere, including a big-ass 42″ x 56″ banner in the Student Center.
To every feminist at Kennesaw State University: If you want equity, show up and prove it.
When women say they hate men, they usually say it for a reason.
Good lord, this is the exact opposite of proving it. You just excused hatred of a demographic while calling yourself equitable.
We pick up the mess you’re pretending to clean, and we explore alternative thoughts because yours don’t work. We won’t let anyone tell us what to think, how to think, or when to speak. And we certainly won’t wait for you to fulfill a promise you never intended to keep in the first place.
If that makes us look misogynistic, then that’s not our problem. We certainly didn’t spread that message, feminists did. Because for some stupid reason, they are scared of the idea that men want a change that doesn’t include your way of looking at things.
You passed up several opportunities to work toward equality. Not all feminists are misandrists, but feminism as an ideology is based on harmful myths about men, and the biggest myth is the myth of male socioeconomic omnipotence, also known as the capital-“P” Patriarchy. Patriarchy is your excuse for remaining willfully ignorant of male pain. Patriarchy is your excuse for countless videos of feminists saying why feminism is a good thing. Patriarchy is your excuse for blaming men’s problems ON men, so the system that benefits men apparently hurts them too, creating an inconsistent, non-falsifiable farce that makes you look like an even bigger idiot.
It takes hatred of men to believe what you do.
And through all of your linguistic gymnastics, you avoid doing any work outside of branding every ass you can with your iron.
We call ourselves non-feminists, and this includes harmless male and female humanists on the fence who don’t call themselves men’s rights advocates either. They are also welcome. Your contempt is so deep that you never thought for a second of how broad “non-femimism” is. So, did you insinuate that we are all misogynists because you love men and are trying to reach out in the spirit of equality?
You and I both know that’s bullshit.
But in spite of our disagreements, I still invite you to become a member of KSU Men because we are open to all. To you, and to every KSU student who cares about equity, click here, click “Join Organization,” and sign in with your KSU NetID. (It says we have five members as of this moment because it will take a few days to get all recent signatories on the official roster.)
We meet every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:30 PM EST in CL 3050. We do not fear dissent, and we understand that we are fallible human beings who need to find the best ideas through rigorous, civil debate. (Also, free donuts.)
Speak your mind and be heard. But be warned: you will be treated like a human being here. Something tells me you won’t like that.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work with the talented, courageous people who make KSU Men possible.
The door will be open.
Sage Gerard (AKA Victor Zen)
Collegiate Activism Director of A Voice for Men
Founder and President of Kennesaw State University Men
