Well, well, well. Mr. Manboobz himself backs down. Isn’t that interesting?

http://jezebel.com/5967923/fuck-you-mras

Following hard on the heels of Kate Harding admitting that, oh, oops, those pesky MRAs might actually have a few things right, and then absurdly, taking credit for bringing attention to the issues, we have David Futrelle himself backing down.

http://manboobz.com/2013/03/05/a-kitten-and-a-question-are-mras-right-about-anything/comment-page-2/#comments

Are MRAs right about anything, he wants to know? And then proceeds to answer his own question, focusing on three teeny little areas of inequality and abuse suffered by men:

1. They tend to get raped in equal measure to women
2. They get locked up way more often than women
3. They tend to be victims of domestic violence

Hey, no bigggies, eh? What’s a little ass-fucking when you’ve been jailed because your wife beat the shit out of you?

The first two commenters also note that mutilating little boy’s genitals while treating little girl’s genitals as sacred might be another thing MR’s get fussed about.

I’ll throw one out, here: Cosmetic Infant Male Circumcision.

And they understand that treating men as walking wallets might also cause a little tension.

MRAs are trivially right about the fact that traditional gender roles put a lot of pressure on men to be materially successful, which is distressing to men who don’t feel comfortable in such a role, who would feel comfortable in it if they could manage to fulfill it, or who have fulfilled it and structure their entire identity around continuing to do so.

Trivially right about the fact that half of humanity is not a tool the other half can use like drillbits? Such insight! How do they manage it!

Don’t get too excited, though. While all these issues might actually be a legitimate cause for concern, the MHRM is not the group we want seeking remedies.

Their [MRAs] whole attitude is “women should be returned to slavery, raped and beaten” and everything they say is steeped in that poison. It nullifies anything useful they might accidentally say.

Goodness me! What shall I make of all the women commenters on this blog who would like me to get raped and murdered? Are they secretly MRAs?

After several more commenters spewing hatred and bile, we finally get to a few more Manboobzers who see that yeah, well, maybe divorce and custody laws could use some changing.

Divorce and child custody is a problem, and I do know men who don’t get to see their children anywhere near as often as they would like

Oh yeah, and the education system is failing boys.

And their points about education have some basis in a real problem – boys are not well served by an educational system that is overstressed so that each teacher has upwards of 30 students in the class. In that case, teachers do tend to reward behavior that helps keep order in the classroom, like sitting quietly and paying attention, which girls are socialized to do (as well as being generally socialized to try to please authority figures…)

Plus there’s that whole not having a say in whether they want to be parents thing.

I think there’s a genuine issue with men not having a say in the outcome if they get a woman pregnant and then being forced to pay child support for a child they didn’t want to have.

And then even when men ARE parents, they are assumed to be secondary to mothers or even irrelevant.

I would have sympathy for a humane father’s rights movement, because it would of necessity be fighting against the oppressive gender roles that say only women can be good caregivers especially of small children and that all men are incompetent parents.

The good news is that the message is out there, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for even the most ardent, strident of feminists to deny it.

Men and boys are being denied some very basic human rights.

Naturally, feminism will try to lay claim to the territory as a strategy to remain relevant. Our job is to make sure that doesn’t happen. As the ideas raised by the MHRM become more and more mainstream, the chorus of voices becomes more and more important.

“First they ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Arthur Schopenhauer

Looks like we’re moving ever closer to the win.

Not much a surprise, really. It’s what men tend to do.

Win.

With a little help from their judgy, bitchy friends.

Lots of love,

JB