As soon as you mention that you're interested in Men's Issues you can see the little cogs clicking away in people's heads. "Ah" they think "You're one of those guys."
Now the problem is, you're already facing an uphill struggle trying to convince people that no, having testicles does not automatically mean the world is your oyster and yes, the way the world is set up sometimes hurts men too. The words "male privilege" and "entitled" tend to get lobbed at any bloke daring to suggest this.
Incidentally Male Privilege sounds brilliant. Where do I sign up for it?
Because up to this point I've seen no evidence of it whatsoever.
I digress.
Thing is, a lot of MRAs seem less interested in Men's Issues than in putting the boot into women and Feminism. And they are really, really not helping.
One thing I keep hearing is that women who would consider themselves feminists are wary of using the term because of the negative stigma it picked up thanks to the Dworkinite "All men are rapists" crowd.
Same applies to the Mens Issues scene. While there are guys out there who are doing good work raising awareness of things like Female on Male Domestic Violence, the way schools are letting down boys, male sex-abuse victims and a raft of other things that suggest Male Privilege is less widespread than people think, they get lumped in with the pissed-off guys on Youtube moaning that all women are sluts and evil.
Here's a useful piece of advice. If you sound like you're about to start foaming at the mouth then no matter how good your arguments are, I'm going to stop listening. And the only people you are going to reach are the other guys in the Pissed Off Divorcee bracket.
It is one of society's unwritten rules that any group will be defined by its most obnoxious and retarded members. Right at the moment the Men's Issues movement is making it easy for their opponents to stow them in with the gun nuts and the Fundies and , yes, the "feminazis" in the box marked "Crazy"
Knock it off.
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