28 Dec 2014

Do Men Need A Better Men’s Rights Movement?

By : Recently, Nancy Kaffer, a columnist at the Detroit Free Press, wrote that “Men Need A Better Men’s Rights Movement” and that the present movement is nothing but a misogynistic conspiracy.
I would like to remind Kaffer that advocacy for men’s rights is not negation of women’s rights. If feminism was all about equality, then feminists would not have become alarmed about the Men’s Rights Movement (MRM). In fact, anyone fighting for an equal world would be glad if half of humanity rises up to speak for equality.
On the other hand, it is radical feminists who spread misandry and have a gynocentric, extremist worldview in which men are dispensable objects. According to feminists, men are nothing but rapists and perpetuators of violence. Feminists sometimes even advocate lesbianism just because “all penetrative sex is rape.”
In India, some of the biggest MRM supporters and activists are women because some of the biggest sufferers of feminist activities and anti-male laws in India are, ironically, women. More women have been arrested under Indian Penal Code Section 498A (which is a dowry prevention law) than under all other Indian laws put together. India has earned the dubious position as a leader of elderly citizen abuse, thanks to wide misuse of anti-dowry laws.

Indian males have become vocal about men’s rights in recent years but not simply because of the facts that, as Nancy Kaffer puts it:

  1. Male-dominated industries were hit hardest in the recession, and the employment rate for men still lags; women, in contrast, have regained all jobs lost in the recession women….
  2. Girls perform better in school….
These may be true, but the bigger issue is that ideological feminists have been using “gender mainstreaming” in India to destroy many of the institutions on which Indian society is based.

Feminists portray India as an underdeveloped civilization in which women are oppressed and hence must be redeemed. They want people to believe that Indian families are dens of domestic violence and child abuse. This is an insult to Indian culture (including Indian women, who have nurtured it), and statistically it is a lie: men are no more violent in the home than women are.
Feminists are also indulging in cultural imperialism, using treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Though treaties are meant to regulate relations between countries and are not concerned about internal matters of a nation, CEDAW tries to undermine the sovereignty of countries such as India by dictating rules about everything from marriage to textbooks.
The concept of human rights developed after the two world wars. Unfortunately, feminists have hijacked the vocabulary of human rights to propagate their ideology. By doing so, they have done a considerable disservice to humanity.
All great civilizations are based on the concept of justice, with a judicial system that protects the innocent. Feminists have tried to attack the core of civilized society by replacing the present judicial system with a feminist one. Feminist jurisprudence tries to promote the rights of women by undermining the rights of men and the defenses that they have against false accusations. Hence, a man can be put behind bars by a mere accusation from a woman, and he can even be killed by her and she will not be punished under the plea that he was a wife-batterer.
Feminists talk about liberating women from their gender roles, yet they want men to be protectors and providers and dole out huge amounts of money as maintenance and child support.
Feminism is more dangerous than terrorism as it silently destroys society from the inside. Feminism is not an egalitarian political outlook but is a virulent, antisocial, extremist outlook.
In fact, it is feminists who need to introspect themselves as they have reached the end of the cliff. They must decide on what kind of world they really want to live in. All of this requires rigorous self-examination on the part of feminists, not on the part of men.
It is not Men’s Rights Activists but feminists who fear human rights for all. Feminism is an ideology that human civilization has a right to question and criticize and challenge.



About Amartya Talukdar

Amartya is a dedicated humanist living in Kolkata in India. He attended Banaras Hindu University. He is a relentless campaigner for Indian and family values.

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