It is quite hard to state "what feminist believe” because there is no overarching definition of what a particular feminist may believe, one thing that seems to be a basic belief of feminist seems to be the idea that women are oppressed. In my mind the key to debunking feminism and validating men’s rights activism is to overthrow this particular idea.
Now what is oppression? This is the key of the matter, it is important to make a distinction between personal choice and governmental and institutional coercion in this matter. The best place to start is with the dictionary [1].
op•pres•sion [uh-presh-uhn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation – noun
1. the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
2. an act or instance of oppressing.
3. the state of being oppressed.
4. the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, anxiety, etc.
The first definition is the most applicable here. If the fourth definition is used then any situation where a person is not happy could be called oppression. It is fair to say that when people talk about "being oppressed” then there is an oppressing force, usually a government behind it. Feminist talk about oppression from the patriarchy or men. I was tempted when writing this article to consider only oppression by law by the government which shall be addressed alongside oppression by the exercise of authority in a cruel, burdensome and unjust manner.
I will start with the most narrowly defined version of oppression. Oppression by law. For women to meet this category there has to be a law that grants men more rights then they have. If you ever have a conversation with a feminist I want you to play this game with them, ask in which way women are oppressed by law. I have played this game myself and the results do little to convince.
On one occasion it was mentioned that the poorest class in America is the single mother. But these people have come to their situation from their own personal choices, the government does not force one to become a single mother therefore it does not meet the category of government oppression. Another thing that was mentioned was that some women who have children have not managed to make enough money to qualify for a full state pension, Oppression?! This is actually an example of equality the only discrimination practised here is that you have enough money, not got enough then you cannot get it, got enough then you get it.
But no! Here come the feminists, equitable has a different meaning apparently, from quality of opportunity to equality of outcome. People like this would have women granted a pension automatically without paying a dime.
Whenever I point these things out or even ask how women are oppressed in the first place then the feminist I am arguing with goes strangely silent, interesting that.. Over time it seems to me that the feminists have little of anything to list as a genuine oppression. And remember that we are talking about oppression for now in its most narrow form, if feminist have nothing here then they have nothing full stop. So, do men’s rights activists have anything here? Oh boy do we…
First unlike the example above this pension tale is genuine oppression. Men in the UK have to work until 65 to qualify for a full pension, women have to work until 60 and generally make less and have more paternity leave. Laws that impose different standards on us based on our sex. Sounds like oppression to me.
How about the fact that discrimination against men is governmentally mandated. Forget about the companies and the universities. The most solid example of this is the new leader of the conservative party in the UK proposed quotas to get the shortlist of political candidates to be half women [2]. Where you see quotas read discrimination.
How about the right to reproductive control. When a woman becomes pregnant then she can abort, give up for adoption and in America shortly after the birth she can abandon the baby and resolve herself of parentage of that baby, this is called safe haven abandonment. When a man gets a woman pregnant then he is screwed, his entire life now becomes a script that the woman will write. If he wants the baby and she doesn’t tough for him, if he doesn’t want the baby and she does then tough for him also.
How about the right to equal protection? Our fascist police state will oppressively arrest a man for a woman’s violence because only men can abuse. A message that is spread by our system and our politicians.
How about the denial of parentage for men? When a split happens the man is treated as sub-human, completely controlled by the government who tell him when he can see his children and when he can’t like he is some sort of criminal.
How about divorce? Where a woman is entitled to her husbands assets and men are made to pay out large sums of money to their wives from businesses that they made succeed. A recent case involved a large payout and continual payouts every year for the rest of the woman’s life!
A man is more likely to be convicted and convicted for longer periods of time than a woman for a similar crime, like murder. We need only look at the attitudes surrounding the Clara Harris case and we see the sympathy that is poured on a woman murderer.
Health spending, for every £1 spend on men’s health care, £8 is spent on women’s health care [3]. Government and charity spending for breast cancer is 37 millions, it’s 10 million for prostate cancer, both diseases kill as many. So the government is spending more to protect a certain segment of the population, how about that?
Oh, by the way. I have been criticised before about not including sources for the things I say. I am always looking to improve my videos so check out the companion blog for this video and you will see them. (point left).
This is only discussing laws and government action that oppress. What about a broader definition of oppression that includes the exercise of authority in a cruel or unjust manner. Undoubtedly under this banner could appear things such as the denigration of deadbeat dads and cruelty in the media. This video is not about that, the point of this video is to point out that in the narrowest definition of oppression women are not oppressed and men are oppressed. We as a society should abandon the feminist hegemony and adopt men’s rights activism as a tool to reach true equality in law.
Sources
[1]
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/oppression
[2]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4517734.stm
[3]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/351518.stm
Posted on: Saturday, May 10, 2008 11:56 PM