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Towards a Militant Feminist Movement: Confronting Men’s Rights Organizing

category north america / mexico | gender | opinion / analysis author Wednesday April 24, 2013 19:44author by A Common Cause Toronto member Report this post to the editors

On the eve of International Women’s Day, so-called men’s rights advocates at the University of Toronto hosted an event confronting women’s studies and academic feminism. This was a follow-up to their event in November featuring self-proclaimed ex-feminist Warren Farrell, author of the book the Myth of Male Power. Warren Farrell is best known for his statements about women making false accusations of rape and his argument that incest can be a positive experience, if only women were not socialized to be victims.
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Towards a Militant Feminist Movement: Confronting Men’s Rights Organizing


On the eve of International Women’s Day, so-called men’s rights advocates at the University of Toronto hosted an event confronting women’s studies and academic feminism. This was a follow-up to their event in November featuring self-proclaimed ex-feminist Warren Farrell, author of the book the Myth of Male Power. Warren Farrell is best known for his statements about women making false accusations of rape and his argument that incest can be a positive experience, if only women were not socialized to be victims. Though figures like this, who have written that, “before we called this date rape and date fraud, we called it exciting”, make it tempting to point to these inflammatory quotes to justify our outrage at these groups, it is their fundamental discourse that we must contend with.

Men’s Rights Associations have sprung up at universities across southern Ontario, including Guelph, Waterloo, McMaster and multiple campuses in Toronto. Their main position is that the hardships of men have been caused by women, the women’s rights movement and in particular, feminists. They express this position with rhetoric ranging from downright reasonable-sounding to blatantly misogynistic, but by only focusing on the latter, we risk normalizing their fundamental message that feminism oppresses men. The exploitation and increased incarceration or suicide rates of men have not been created by feminism. Some of the supposed facts that they present, such as the prevalence of false rape accusations are simply untrue, but those about drop-out rates, incarceration and suicide of men often approximate truth. We do not need to negate these facts to contend with them, but instead, must place them in an accurate political context, that of capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy.

The emergence of these groups and the difficulties that we have faced organizing against them are not, as these misogynists claim, a symptom of a feminist movement on campuses gone-too-far, but a disturbing sign of the lack of radical feminist organizing in recent years. As of late, students and leftists have most often responded to issues of patriarchy through token lip service, and not organized responses. These misogynist organizations have seized on this organizing vacuum, so that we are now in a position where the historical fact of the systemic oppression of women is being challenged. As we began to organize a response to this most recent event, we had to confront the criticisms leveraged from our previous action – doors were blocked, there was a confrontation with the police, and vocal or militant women present at the demonstration were identified and targeted on the internet, harassed and threatened.

As with populist white supremacist organizations, these misogynist groups have relied heavily on arguments of free speech and the “reverse oppression” faced by the white man at the hands of organized marginalized groups. In some spaces, the debate was successfully reframed to be about the illegitimacy of militancy and the virtues of free speech. We should know to expect these arguments. With the administration siding with the misogynists, many organizing around this issue along liberal lines were visibly shaken. Many were afraid to confront the misogynists again, for fear of retaliation. Nevertheless, what must be done remains the same. We need to move towards reactivating a radical, militant feminist movement that can contend, not just with the backwards misogynists of the men’s rights movement, but with the issues that continue to affect women everyday on their campuses, from systemic oppression in male-dominated fields to the high prevalence of sexual assaults, not by turning to the police or the University administration, but through a militant organized resistance.

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Tue 19 Mar, 16:29

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7female_rmg_sitdown_demo_0.jpg imageMAS 2013 International Women’s Day Statement 16:48 Sat 09 Mar by Miami Autonomy & Solidarity 0 comments

On this International Women’s Day, we stand in solidarity as, and with, the gender oppressed and the many global struggles that centrally challenge the various forms of patriarchy in our lives as part of a broad movement against capitalism, the state and all forms of oppression!

textCollaborative document of Queers Without Borders 09:04 Sun 01 Nov by m(a)tt 0 comments

Queers Without Borders is a radical queer collective based in Hartford, CT in the United States. Below is a document that was collaboratively edited during an earlier meeting this year which elaborates the group's aims and politics. The Workers Solidarity Alliance of Connecticut participates in QWB as a part of our social movement work.

nefac11.jpg imageCall for Anarchist contingent at International Women's Day march 15:30 Tue 04 Mar by Jon 0 comments

NEFAC-NYC calls for a red and black contingent for the International Women's Day march on Saturday March 8th.
We will assemble on the southeast corner of Union Square at 11:45am and march to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on Washington Square Place and Green Street after a small rally. Look for the red and black flags!

banner.jpg imageQuebec city - Pro-choice outmobilizes chain for life 02:40 Tue 09 Oct by NP 1 comments

When NEFAC members learned that a bunch of christian fundamentalists where mobilising for a so-called “chain for life” in Quebec city, the decided to do something about it. They called their friends and comrades at the Ainsi squattent-elles! anarcha-feminist radio program and issued a joint call for a pro-choice counter demonstration. In less then a week, the anarchists where able to mobilise close to one hundred people, that’s five times more then the anti-abortion group!

imageOrganize to Resist Anti-Gay Attacks and Violence! Jul 01 by First of May Anarchist Alliance 2 comments

There has to be maximum resistance to anti-gay ideas, ideologies, attacks and violence. The solution isn’t in gay cops or a pro-gay government. The police and the System they serve are perpetrators of institutional violence and injustice. We have to be in the struggles for LGTBQ freedom and equality. Whether as LGTBQ folks or as allies, we must be connecting with the millions of people who are fighting for personal and social dignity and justice. As attacks and murders are committed, we must work to either highlight and encourage or organize ourselves those initiatives and projects that mobilize and act – whether in outright street based self-defense or in mass organizations that confront government and social laws! We need to make it rough for anyone who thinks they can bash us! [Italiano]

imageWhy Women Should Join Political Organizations Sep 05 by Dolores 0 comments

What I am writing is not something new, but I feel that the participation of women in revolutionary organizations is still minimal. As such, I feel a responsibility to urge women who are feeling stuck, alone, and are serious about being part of a larger movement of abolishing all forms of oppression to consider joining a political group. Our voices are often excluded and not heard, and only by inserting ourselves into the discussion will things change.

imageQueer Liberation and Anarchist Communism Jun 17 by Thomas Giovanni 0 comments

As anarchist communists, it is only logical and consistent with our principles in the struggle for a free humanity that we support the personal, cultural, and institutional fight against patriarchy, hetero-sexism, the gender bi-nary system and all other struggles for queer liberation both in themselves and in their intersectionalities with capitalism, the state, white supremacy, and all other forms of human oppression. [ Ελληνικά]

textNEA#10: Putting the Control Back in Birth Control Apr 26 by PJ Lilley & Jeff Shantz 1 comments

As anarcha-feminists, when we think of "reproductive rights" we usually first think of a woman's right to choose when/where/how she has children in terms of her access to free, safe abortions and multiple birth control technologies. We might think of Emma Goldman standing on a soapbox risking arrest to talk to women about condoms, or of our sisters currently standing on the front lines doing clinic defense actions. But on the flip side of the same coin is the right to choose to have a child, and the access to health care and a safe environment to enable that choice. Creeping liberalism and racism manifest when the equation that abortion equals "individual choice free from state interference", or the interests of white, middle class women become the dominant interpretation of reproductive liberty.

imageMAS 2013 International Women’s Day Statement Mar 09 (MAS) 0 comments

On this International Women’s Day, we stand in solidarity as, and with, the gender oppressed and the many global struggles that centrally challenge the various forms of patriarchy in our lives as part of a broad movement against capitalism, the state and all forms of oppression!

imageCall for Anarchist contingent at International Women's Day march Mar 04 NEFAC-NYC 0 comments

NEFAC-NYC calls for a red and black contingent for the International Women's Day march on Saturday March 8th.
We will assemble on the southeast corner of Union Square at 11:45am and march to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on Washington Square Place and Green Street after a small rally. Look for the red and black flags!

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