Picture if you will, a day at the races. As the starting gate slams open, a clumsy old gray mare stumbles out, nearly oblivious to the blur of thoroughbreds flying past. She looks around, shakes herself off, and staggers away in the general direction of the finish line. Hi everybody! It’s me! I’m about to dig in to a new case, but before I do I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you what I am all about.
I have always been relatively apolitical, not looking for a cause, and not much of a joiner, except for a handful of fun volunteer jobs. Oddly enough, even though I’m writing for an international audience, I’ve never been a publicity hound. Miss Manners once said that a lady’s name appears in the newspaper only three times throughout her life – upon her birth, her wedding and her death, and I once aspired to that level of taste and class. Then I stumbled into the Manosphere, and for the first time in my forty-nine years, I am an activist. Not a dignified and subtle advocate, not a sympathetic supporter and occasional donor, cheering politely from the sidelines, but an activist. A friggin‘ Reformer. And I love it! My age might have something to do with my changed attitude, what with the sudden lack of estrogen in my life, and I will gladly take this as the upside to the sudden necessity for hyper-vigilance with a magnifying mirror and a pair of tweezers. (TMI? Sorry.)
Most of my work at AVfM has been done quietly, behind the scenes, and somewhat independently, and I think I’d like to keep it that way. One of my primary contributions is to “raise awareness” via mail campaigns. I gladly participate in the organized lobbying of politicians, judges and policy makers, but I also reach out to ordinary citizens – those who are not already deeply entrenched in the political system. I send hundreds of emails to geographically targeted not-quite-random strangers. Many of those emails, coming from an unknown address, are immediately deleted, but many are not. People are curious. They see familiar names, they speculate over photographs, and they click on links. If they know of the parties involved, they may forward these emails to friends and to family. The Voice of A Voice for Men, is “heard” by people who are (like I was) completely unaware of the MHRM. I could use some assistance with this. Thus far I have targeted smallish populations, and I’ve managed well on my own, but as AVfM publicizes cases in more heavily populated communities, those hundreds of emails can, and should, become thousands of emails. I’m asking for volunteers. Dozens, please, if not hundreds. I won’t explain the process here, and I will do everything I can to make it easy and convenient for you, but if you can spare some time to occasionally do a bit of tedious copying, pasting, pointing and clicking, I would be grateful.
Activism that’s oriented to specific cases is only a part of what we do here, yet it’s the part that most appeals to me. I’m way too old to believe that I have all the answers, but I sure have plenty of questions. I have a spotlight and I know how to use it. I can shine a light on people who prefer to work in the shadows. I can ask questions and I can inspire others to ask the same questions. And to demand answers. I can also offer the sanity of A Voice for Men to people who no longer even wonder if sanity exists.
If you’d like to make yourself available for these campaigns, please contact me at:
outreach@avoiceformen.com
Suz
And they're off!
