I was recently contacted for an interview by someone named Andrea who writes for the Daily Emerald at the University of Oregon. As I have many times in the past I wanted to share the unedited and complete answers I provided to her questions. PE
What is your full first and last name, your age, and your occupation?
Paul Elam, 56, men’s human rights activist.
What political party do you consider yourself a part of?
None.
What does antifeminism mean to you?
Antifeminism is a philosophy based on human compassion and guided by evidence-based analysis of social conditions. Antifeminism emerged as a countervailing response to longstanding feminist dogma and disinformation.
The intensification of that response has been necessitated more recently by the growing hegemony and corruption of feminism in academic settings, media and governance.
What does feminism mean to you?
I am going to pre-qualify my answer to this by letting you know that I am assuming when you say “feminism” you are talking about an ideology separate and distinct from the concept of equal rights under the law, which I fully support. I can’t discuss the imaginary feminism of equality and gender justice, except to say that it does not exist in any meaningful way, but I can discuss the feminism on the ground and affecting all the institutions in this culture.
Feminism is a corrupt agenda of gluttonous power grabbing through the use of victim politics and the exploitation of traditional gender roles.
While it has provided some superficial benefit to women, its great payoff is in the financial and social enrichment of the ideologues, politicians and state functionaries who embrace or claim to embrace and further feminist aims.
They have accomplished much of this with faulty research, disingenuous propaganda, proxy violence, direct violence and fostering as much division between the sexes as possible.
Why are you opposed to feminism/what aspects of feminism are you opposed to?
I am opposed to it’s corrupting influence on scholarly pursuits, its corrupting influence on government, its class demonization for profit, its creation of a hostile and dangerous atmosphere for young men in our colleges and universities, its reliance on fabrications that ultimately harm society, e.g. the wage gap myth, the male only domestic violence paradigm, a non-existent rape culture, its distortion of history, its failure to hold to the promise of gender blindness in the amelioration of social ills and its tendency to produce violent forms of bigotry.
Also, I am opposed to its exploitation of traditional gender roles as a mechanism for gain even as it alleges to seek an end to those gender roles. I am opposed to its use of shame and character assassination to persecute and control anyone who speaks in dissent of feminist dogma, its blatant attempts to demonize and silence individuals and groups who seek to investigate and address issues faced by men and boys, as well as its insistence to represent values and goals which it does not in reality represent.
How long have you considered yourself an antifeminist?
I have always been an antifeminist, even when I was a feminist. Allow me to make that more clear. I was a feminist as long as I believed the agenda was to assist an under represented part of the population that was largely voiceless. Like most men’s human rights activists the desire to assist people in trouble, especially people whose problems were being ignored, was what led me into the feminist world to begin with. Once I figured out that feminism was actually about little to none of its stated goals, but was more about the solvency of its advocates – who have no interest in addressing the issues faced by men and boys – I shed the label once and for all.
Are there any personal experiences that have led you to becoming antifeminist? Please explain, (if you feel comfortable.)
Quite comfortable. The answer, in a word, is feminists. Years of feminists reacting to my questions with attempts to shame me, accusations of misogyny, questioning my sexual orientation (with the assumption I am homophobic), questioning my relationship with my mother, questioning my ability to “succeed” with women, often for something as simple as challenging feminist research methodology, provided a great deal of incentive toward antifeminism.
This was not just a few incidents. It started the very same moment that I started to question feminist doctrine. And it continues unimpeded to this day, a quarter of a century later.
What do you think needs to change, if anything, about the way people view feminism and antifeminism? Do you think there are any misinterpretations about what they mean? If so, what are they?
All three of these questions can be answered in positive ways, by feminist adherents and leading advocates actually embracing the goals they disingenuously claim to embrace in the first place. That would alleviate the hypocrisy that has stained feminism’s image. The disinformation about men’s advocates they make it a policy to further would end. We would actually end up on the same page, and with a humanist movement dedicated to connecting women and men in an atmosphere of mutual respect and in the name of ameliorating problems faced by men and women alilke.
What is your first initial impression of someone who says they’re a feminist?
I think, “Here is a person that will tell me how much they believe in equal rights and ending gender discrimination, and who will then tell me, in their very next breath, that my concerns about false accusations against men of sexual assault are because I support rape and hate women.”
Have your experiences changed your view of men, women, or American society as a whole in any way?
Most definitely. Being an activist has made me wake up to the fact that many of our problems are caused by women who claim not be to feminist but take advantage of every opportunity that corrupt feminism has afforded them, by men who are feminist sycophants and by men who claim to be antifeminist but who lack courage and conviction, who capitulate to feminist shaming tactics, and fail to take a stand, or take action for their claimed beliefs when it is most needed.
The last part of that is starting to change, though, which is why you are doing an article on this. If men, and a good number of women, were not standing up to the corruption and speaking out, I would not be sitting here answering your questions about it.
Men have been told by feminists for a long time that they needed to express their feelings. And here those feelings finally come. It is slowly restoring my faith in society. Eventually what feminists derisively demanded of men will bring feminism as we know it to an end. It hardly gets any more poetic than that.
What are some things you have done in the past, or have been doing recently, to advocate antifeminism and/or men’s rights?
I founded and run (with a great deal of help) A Voice for Men, the largest and most traveled men’s rights platform on the internet, which is currently experiencing organic growth. AVFM does direct advocacy for the falsely accused and the falsely convicted and works diligently to expose the lies and misrepresentations of feminist ideologues, as well as the corrupt actions of judicial officials, politicians and other agents of the state that impact the areas of our concern.
Anything else you would like to mention about yourself or any relevant topics?
No, I think I have expressed what I wanted to say. I will, however, allow someone else to speak on my behalf.
