You’ve probably heard the saying somewhere before, “The fire that burns inside of us”. It’s a statement about our passion and motivation to pursue a dream or achieve a goal, where our motivation is driven by that burning fire inside of us.
What makes the fire burn inside of me is the desire to correct the social injustice I see in the world, visible in the actions of many feminists, their sympathisers, the media and the authorities. My burning fire is the belief that all human beings are equal, coupled with the frustrated observation that modern feminism seems to be doing its absolute best to destroy the concept of equality.
“But Alan, feminism is all about equality!”
Well, you might think it is, and maybe it used to be, but it’s no longer about equality at all. I can’t see it any more.
The textbook definition of modern feminism is that it strives to define, establish, and achieve equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women. However, you might notice it specifically excludes men from the definition, and you might think that’s ok, since it’s all about equal rights for women. And that’s where the problem is.
You see, today’s women (in the western world) no longer have to strive for equal rights and equal opportunity, because they already have those rights. They achieved those rights decades ago. But they still need to justify their existence, and they still need something to complain about in order to continue receiving funding and maintain some level of importance. So now they’re striving for women to have more rights than men.
When I see feminists wanting men arrested for sitting with their legs too far apart, or when they place more importance on the kind of shirt a man is wearing than on his incredible achievement at landing a spaceship on a comet, or when they laugh at women cutting off men’s penises and encourage more women to do that, or when they demand more attention be paid to female victims of violence despite significantly more men dying from violence, or when they claim that all men are rapists or paedophiles, or when they deny that women should be responsible for anything that happens to them if men are involved, or when they continue the lie that men get paid more than women for the same jobs, or when they go out of their way to shut down, censor or ridicule men’s attempts to discuss or deal with men’s-only issues, then what I’m seeing are attempts by feminists to engage in what has become a socially acceptable hatred of men.
What gets the fire burning inside of me is seeing anti-male hatred and bigotry supported by so many people, organisations and authorities because none of them wants to be stigmatised for criticising feminism or women. And so they support this sexism and discrimination because they’re afraid of the social penalty if they don’t.
I don’t particularly care about any social penalty. I’m quite open about my opinion on sexism and discrimination when I see it, and I’ve been recently receiving encouragement from various quarters to continue voicing my opposition to the hateful sexism that is modern feminism.
So I’ve decided to continue my crusade against misandry. Where I see sexism and discrimination against men in favour of women, I’m going to continue to stand up and say something about these double standards that do nothing for equality. But much more frequently than I used to.
The term ‘equality’ seems to have become corrupted in today’s world. It now seems to mean ‘equality for women while excluding men’, and any attempt to discuss sexist policies that favour only women are replied with ‘why do you hate women?’ or ‘misogynist!’
I have a friend who falls into that category. When I talk to him about some new feminist or feminist-inspired demand for change that favours only women while excluding men, following the belief that social or legal changes should apply to all people equally, his reply is usually along the lines of “It’s amazing how much you clearly hate women, but you just don’t see it.” It amazes me that discussion about equality today is perceived as hatred for women, while discussion about women’s rights while excluding men’s is seen as equality.
I know it’s because equality – when applied to feminist demands – either wants to take away what women want because men don’t have it, or wants to minimise it by allowing men to have it too. By ‘taking something away from women’ in this way, it’s perceived by many as ‘hatred for women’.
Feminism is certainly to blame for this. It’s in their interests to slowly modify social beliefs so that criticism of women, or wanting men to also have what women exclusively want, is seen as hatred of women. If you’re not outright supporting any woman’s selfish demands for special treatment, or their expressions of stupidity, or their sexism and discrimination against men, then you must clearly hate all women.
It’s become a problem that a few astute people have noticed and talked about (that’s right, I’m not the only one who’s noticed this and talking about it!), and where feminists once campaigned to bring about changes in the system so that women could enjoy equal rights for women as well as for men, now both men and women need to campaign to have those rights applied equally to both men and women before men discover they no longer have any rights.
Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) have done a good job of starting this, but unfortunately they’ve often been derailed by many of their members being angry and hateful towards women as well, which really hasn’t helped the cause. I almost started calling myself a Men’s Rights Activist a few years ago, until I saw how many hateful members there were, and I decided I didn’t want to be a part of it.
There needs to be a movement of people – both men and women – who are actively supporting and promoting equal rights for all people, regardless of their gender or the colour of their skin. Not just equal rights for women.
What should we call this movement? Any suggestions?
Whatever we call it, and whatever it becomes, or whatever it is that I’m already part of, I’m going to be writing more about this. I feel it’s too important to stay silent about.
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