Most articles you read in the mainstream media have a very dim view of Men's Rights and there may be something to that. We have a very vocal contingent of people who speak on behalf of Men's Rights who come off as whiny or bitchy. They seem to talk at length about one thing, feminazi's and they tend to lump all feminists into that movement. In doing so they ignore the obvious inequalities that exist for both men and women and fail to see that women and men are not at war. The most influential members of the movement understand this and they see that rather than only pushing for men's rights, we need to be pushing for equal rights for everyone. That means that the laws and societal issues that discriminate against both sexes need to be addressed equally.
The only way to change public opinion is to address issues in how they affect both men and women. I think many writers, especially in mainstream media, tend to take sides and if that makes me seem whiny or bitchy so be it. I just don't see many new's articles that focus on how the courts provide preferential treatment to women. Probably the worst thing about how the Men's Rights movement is viewed is that Men are the worst critics. The whole, suck it up and be a man attitude, is the one the majority of men take. This is because society teaches us that to lose against a woman is emasculating and women and men both believe this and it's utter bullshit. In most cases, especially those involving legal issues, men are (the vast majority of times) treated far harsher than women are. Yet according to our society, which is so wrapped up in it's outdated concept of chivalry, women are weaker and deserve to be given lesser sentences because they are so frail there's no way they can endure like men do. In essence the thing women benefit most from is the mentality that women are weaker than men.
So as a movement we have to challenge these ideals as much as feminists do. We have to tell people women are just as capable as men, they are just as smart and they are just as tough. They have the right to do anything that men do. Obviously men and women are different and there are things that either sex excel at, recognizing that and saying that because one sex is not as good at one thing as the other does not make either sex weaker or inferior. In fact the whole concept of the weaker sex hurts both men and women. The Men's Rights Movement needs to be for equality for both men and women and the only way to do this is to own up and admit where inequality for women still exists, and anyone who say's that women don't face issues in today's society has their heads buried in the sand.
In essence we have to stand up and take ownership of our movement and call out those that use it as a platform to complain about women in general. This approach is not serving anyone, it hurts our cause and it hurts society as a whole. So its time that we call out those who use the movement to push forward their own misogynistic agendas. Until we as men admit that there are men who use the cause to be the male equivalent of "feminazi's," we are not going to be taken seriously. By doing all this, pushing for equality, we will see both men and women listening to a rational voice centered on the truth, that men and women are not treated equal and in some areas men are better off than women and vice-versa. Admitting this will be the first step to our movement being seen in the mainstream as something more than a fringe group for disenfranchised whiny, bitchy men.
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