Trigger warning for discussion of sexism, sexual assault, and racism.
"The list of grievances for MRAs is long. It includes the elevated rate of suicide for men, educational discrimination against boys, economic and workplace conditions for men, violence against men, false rape reporting, fathers’ rights in custody battles, rates of male imprisonment and prison conditions, and the horrors of war. Many of these issues deserve a thoughtful response and the force of an organized movement for address them. It’s too bad that’s not what men’s rights activists are offering."
A Good Men's Rights Movement is Hard to Find by Jaclyn Friedman.
Whilst reading about Men's Rights activism I have repeatedly come across the idea that people who fight against the sexual abuse of women do so while condoning or disregarding the sexual abuse of men. (I thought I should provide a couple of examples. a disagreement with
seanan_mcguire's declaration that she will not have her character Toby Daye raped, and a discussion of a set of photographs of men holding quotations from those who raped them (TW: features the photos). I figured that rather than just saying "But that's not true!" I would post some links to resources (some of which I found in the above article) whose existence demonstrates that this idea isn't true, that we oppose sexual assault being perpetrated upon anyone. The photos linked above come from Project Unbreakable, Grace Brown's series of photographs she's taken of survivors of sexual assault holding a poster with a quote from their attacker. I've written about it here before.
'The Rape of Men' by Will Storr, "reveals how male rape is endemic in many of the world's conflicts."
http://www.justdetention.org/ is "a human rights organization that seeks to end sexual abuse in all forms of detention."
http://malesurvivor.org/ is an organization focused on "overcoming sexual victimization of boys and men"
http://servicewomen.org/ works to end sexual assault and sexual harassment in the US Military, directed against anyone.
I know there are more resources out there, and I'll keep signal-boosting them.
Last but not least, this year's "don't dress in costumes based on slanderous stereotypes of cultures" campaign from Ohio U's Students Teaching ABout Racism In Society "features side-eye" as a friend of mine put it.
"The list of grievances for MRAs is long. It includes the elevated rate of suicide for men, educational discrimination against boys, economic and workplace conditions for men, violence against men, false rape reporting, fathers’ rights in custody battles, rates of male imprisonment and prison conditions, and the horrors of war. Many of these issues deserve a thoughtful response and the force of an organized movement for address them. It’s too bad that’s not what men’s rights activists are offering."
A Good Men's Rights Movement is Hard to Find by Jaclyn Friedman.
Whilst reading about Men's Rights activism I have repeatedly come across the idea that people who fight against the sexual abuse of women do so while condoning or disregarding the sexual abuse of men. (I thought I should provide a couple of examples. a disagreement with
seanan_mcguire's declaration that she will not have her character Toby Daye raped, and a discussion of a set of photographs of men holding quotations from those who raped them (TW: features the photos). I figured that rather than just saying "But that's not true!" I would post some links to resources (some of which I found in the above article) whose existence demonstrates that this idea isn't true, that we oppose sexual assault being perpetrated upon anyone. The photos linked above come from Project Unbreakable, Grace Brown's series of photographs she's taken of survivors of sexual assault holding a poster with a quote from their attacker. I've written about it here before. 'The Rape of Men' by Will Storr, "reveals how male rape is endemic in many of the world's conflicts."
http://www.justdetention.org/ is "a human rights organization that seeks to end sexual abuse in all forms of detention."
http://malesurvivor.org/ is an organization focused on "overcoming sexual victimization of boys and men"
http://servicewomen.org/ works to end sexual assault and sexual harassment in the US Military, directed against anyone.
I know there are more resources out there, and I'll keep signal-boosting them.
Last but not least, this year's "don't dress in costumes based on slanderous stereotypes of cultures" campaign from Ohio U's Students Teaching ABout Racism In Society "features side-eye" as a friend of mine put it.
- Current Mood:
determined
Comments
Then I read Seanan's article, and omg. D: When? Finally? Clearly someone was really looking forward to that part.
I hope this makes sense, yellination is happening. (hence edits) (also, dammit autocorrect stop 'fixing' usernames)
Edited at 2013-10-26 03:57 pm (UTC)
I loved the last bit. No one has used "she was asking for it" as a rape defense. Yeah, no one ever said "look, you can't say that the sex wasn't consensual, or at least that a reasonable person wouldn't assume it was!" to defend against rape.
(Yes, I know, he wants to pretend "asking for it" means something other than, you know, asking for it (lack of quotes intentional), as if that wasn't the entire *point* of the "asking for it" defense - that it was (or probably surely seemed to be) consensual.)
Make one of those posters with the image of an over-the-top dressed rapper, or perhaps one of the more flamboyant Kid Rock images. Are such people flaunting stereotypes, expressing themselves authentically, or what? Does it matter that they make lots of money looking so ridiculous?
There needs to be a balance.
I'm happy that the mens' organization -- The Mankind Project -- doesn't spout these beliefs. Instead, we focus on helping each other become better men.