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The Men's Coalition... Stealth feminist apologists?

posted on Sunday, July 13, 2008 8:39 PM

http://www.themenscoalition.org.uk/Welcome.html

The men's coalition

The Men’s Coalition is a new organisation that aims to put issues of concern to men and boys such as health, parenting and caring, relationships, education, employment, crime and violence firmly on the public policy agenda.

At the bottom of the page it states that the Men's Coalition supports the White Ribbon campaign which bills itself as "Men working to end men's violence against women. As anyone who has seen my videos should know, language like this gets me seeing red a little bit. Why just men's violence against women? If you read their F.A.Q. page then they specify that they are talking about DV and rape.

That is a bit dissapointing but there are many things on their website which seem promising. Could you guys weigh in with your opinion of this?

category: Gender Issues Politics Domestic Violence Rape

Comments


# re: The Men's Coalition... Stealth feminist apologists?
Posted by Chris on 7/13/2008 9:45 PM
Gravatar The Men's Coalition consists of so-called "responsible" UK men's groups and charities. Of course by "responsible", they really mean - "Father's 4 Justice can fuck off".

Considering how it is so closely linked to the government, the Men's Coalition does have the potential to make quite an impact.

However, I am suspicious though, that the true motivation for launching the organisation, was to try and fool people in to believing that the government actually cares about men's issues.

I won't be writing off the organisation just yet. Instead, I'm going to send them an e-mail, in which I will suggest a few ideas about how I think the Men's Coalition can improve.

The response (assuming that I will receive one) should go along way to either proving or alleviating my current suspicions.
# re: The Men's Coalition... Stealth feminist apologists?
Posted by ArgusEyes on 7/14/2008 6:29 AM
Gravatar Hi Chris,

Thanks for the effort. Keep us posted with what they say in response.

Mark
# re: The Men's Coalition... Stealth feminist apologists?
Posted by Pankaj on 7/22/2008 10:39 AM
Gravatar Why? Why is everything in the UK so socialistic? I am seeing that socialists and feminists are furthering their agendas together. The rest of you UK people need to get control of your country back. This time, please safeguard the right of the people to bear arms, just like the USA.
# re: The Men's Coalition... Stealth feminist apologists?
Posted by ArgusEyes on 7/22/2008 11:32 PM
Gravatar In the UK there is no constitution guaranteeing basic rights. So all it takes is for one law to be passed and your rights go away. For example, we now have hate speech laws so goodbye freedom of speech. When stuff like this happens in the U.S. then they can be challenged as unconstitutional.
# re: The Men's Coalition... Stealth feminist apologists?
Posted by Richard on 7/25/2008 4:43 PM
Gravatar Like Chris (above) I do have hopes that the Men's Coalition will play an important role in men's rights in the UK.

However, I think it is important that MRAs give plenty of feedback to this organization. I have also written to them recently, so have the Mankind Initiative group.

If MRAs do not do this I fear that the aims of the oranization will be very imbalanced. This statement from the Home Office site shows that one of the key reasons the group was created was for "changing men's behaviour" regarding domestic violence (no group to "change women's behaviour" I see).

"The Home Office funded The Centre for Public Innovation to host two seminars on changing men's behaviour in 2006/07. The seminars were attended by a wide range of groups who all have an interest in this emerging agenda. This work is ongoing; the aim is that it will develop into the National Men's Coalition in the coming year. This grouping has joined forces with the Men's Health Forum to consider the formation of a coalition of organisations to deal with men's health and behaviour, creating a powerful male voice to address violent behaviour."

Home office Minister Vernon Coaker wrote the following:

"Men have a responsibility to speak out and speak up on this issue. To challenge the myths and stereotypes that still surround the issue of rape and sexual assault. To show that being masculine, or being strong, does not involve dominating others.

I am determined to get these messages across. In recent months I have been working with the Mens’ Coalition, an organisation which aims to get men speaking out on these issues. The group is in its infancy but is a hugely positive step in the right direction."

http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/07/rape-minister-women-violence

I also left a message in the comment section of this article.
# re: The Men's Coalition... Stealth feminist apologists?
Posted by Chris on 7/27/2008 7:13 PM
Gravatar It's now been thirteen days since I e-mailed the Men's Coalition (a copy of my e-mail can be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/5afp9a), and I still haven't received a response.
# re: The Men's Coalition... Stealth feminist apologists?
Posted by ArgusEyes on 7/28/2008 7:28 PM
Gravatar Thanks Chris and Richard. Keep up the good work.
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The path to true gender equality

What is equality? We in the men’s rights movement believe in equality of opportunity, that as long as the playing field is level then the outcomes should not matter. The feminists tend to believe that equality of outcome is what matters, that the columns under men and women must match for there to be no more sexism. So what really matters at the end of the day is what you are comparing. Rights or outcomes? This is the foundation of our debate.