No Large Men's Groups?
A recent post by Dr Pelle Billing asked the question
Where Are All the Men's Organizations?
Why is it that men have failed to come together to take on the
feminists, the anti-male laws and all the poisonous misandry that
infects their lives so negatively?
Well, no doubt, there are many reasons.
Here are some of them.
.......
1. Self-serving government.
Governments and millions (literally) of their workers benefit in numerous ways by
promoting feminism and various
women-centred groups (e.g. see
Why
Governments Love Feminism) but they are unlikely to benefit much by
promoting men's
groups. As a
result, it has been virtually impossible for men to resource from public funds the creation and
development of coordinated groups that are truly concerned with their own
well-being.
2. Female histrionics.
Female histrionics is a well-organised enterprise.
Female histrionics is a well-organised enterprise.
Many government departments, women's groups, academics, social service organisations, feminist-indoctrinated student bodies,
tabloid media businesses, and so on, are
populated with people who have a vested interest in maintaining a war
against men.
These people often collude together to generate public hysteria that is
particularly hostile towards any suggestion that men might be being
treated unfairly; e.g. see
Spin Sisters to
learn how the editors of women's magazines right across America
colluded with each other to splash
across their front covers stories involving male violence against women.
The result has been that both politicians and the mainstream media
have, for many years, been terrified of looking into such unfairness and
discussing it.
Indeed, the very act of publicly discussing areas wherein men are being
treated unfairly has often resulted in vicious protests wherein it is
proclaimed that "vulnerable women" will be made even more vulnerable if
people are told that men are being unfairly treated.
It is also often alleged that such women would be made to feel 'guilty' by such
public
discussions and, further, that this guilt might inhibit women from
obtaining support when they need it.
Of course, the real motive behind all this nonsense is simply to make
men (and politicians and journalists) too fearful (or too polite) to point
out how badly men are being treated.
And this failure to stand up for men allows the usual culprits to
continue reaping the profits (which are huge) arising from their
relentless campaigns against men.
Just a few examples of the effects of these shenanigans include ...
a. The mainstream media and the government refusing to discuss the fact
that women receive far more funding for their health concerns than do men,
lest women are, allegedly, made to feel guilty about their privileged
position when it comes to health matters.
b. The refusal by much of the mainstream media and the government to
properly address the high incidence of false allegations of various kinds
of 'abuse' made by women (and children) against men - and, in the case of
the media, they will rarely address these problems even in fictional
programs and films.
If they do, they are pounded relentlessly by various hysterical women's
groups.
c. The refusal by the government and most of the mainstream media to
talk about the high, but well-hidden, incidence of domestic violence that
is committed against men (e.g. see
Would You Sign This Contract?)
The denial of funding
for assisting men victims of domestic violence is just one concrete
result of this.
d. Men being too intimidated to speak out for fear of being ridiculed,
insulted, accused of misogyny, demoted or dismissed from their jobs,
described as promoters of abuse, as closet wife-beaters,
as reactionary dinosaurs, and so on.
In other words, the self-serving public hysteria that has been
continually fomented by various groups - and, indeed, by millions of women
- has successfully blocked public
discussions about the mistreatment and disadvantaging of men.
3. Feminist indoctrination.
media feminists for many years colluded together to
highlight at every opportunity women's victimisation
As described by Myrna Blyth in her book Spin Sisters, media
feminists for many years colluded together to highlight at every
opportunity women's victimisation; e.g. by continually shoving tales of
their abuse into the frontmost positions of their publications while
burying anything that remotely suggested that men might oftentimes be
victims.
Indeed, I recall one journalist talking about the time that she was
asked to do a piece about domestic violence by her editor.
She did her research and produced what she considered to be a fair
reflection of the situation.
She presented her article to her editor and was 'shocked' to be told by
her that she needed to re-write her piece and to eliminate any suggestion
that men were victims of female abuse.
And this was virtually the rule for about two decades - through the mid
80s to the mid 00s.
Men victims of domestic violence must not be talked about.
False accusations against men must not be discussed.
And if ever they were, then this must be counterbalanced by a deluge of
propaganda highlighting women as victims.
This sort of thing still goes on today, with, for example, the BBC forever doing its
best to highlight stories - fictional and otherwise - wherein men are being abusive toward women or
children while downplaying or ignoring those wherein women are the perpetrators.
In other words, mainstream media coverage has been designed to paint a
picture of women as angels and men as demons.
Furthermore, there has been put into place a highly-successful feminist-inspired
media manipulation of the language designed to airbrush out of the picture the gender of any victims when
they are male, but to highlight the gender when any victims are
female - with the opposite being true when it comes to perpetrators.
A good example of this tactic is the way in which the mainstream media persist
in referring
to, let us say, men victims of war, as "soldiers", "troops", "officers",
"mariners", "recruits", "Iraqis", "Palestinians", and so on. Whereas when
the victims are women then they are almost always referred to as "women".
Indeed, I am actually often quite taken aback when, for example, I come
across BBC TV or radio programmes of forty years ago and beyond which describe men victims as 'men'.
"100 'men' died in the mining disaster."
"100 'men' were lost at sea."
"100 'men' were treated in hospital for burns."
Such statements actually sound quite strange these days; because they
are so rarely made.
What we would normally hear these days is, ...
"100 'miners' died in the mining disaster."
"100 'crew' were lost at sea."
"100 'workers' were treated in hospital for burns."
In other words, the gender of men victims is purposely disappeared
from view.
A similar situation occurs with children.
Boys who are victims are usually referred to as 'children', but when
they are perpetrators they are mostly referred to as 'boys'.
Boys who are victims are usually referred to as 'children', but when
they are perpetrators they are mostly referred to as 'boys'.
With girls, the reverse is true. They are 'children' when perpetrators,
and 'girls' when victims.
Indeed, when females are victims, the term 'girls' if often used to describe
females in their early twenties.
As a result of all these linguistic shenaningans designed to mask the
fact that 'men' are ever victims, most men seem not to have even become aware that they are
being severely disadvantaged when compared to women.
Neither are they yet
aware of the fact that men, not women, make up the vast majority of victims when
it comes to most circumstances wherein people are regarded as victims.
Interestingly, however, many men might actually
know that most victims are
male. But, certainly, they are mostly not aware of it.
And they are mostly not aware of it precisely because there has been an
enormous amount of effort expended by certain groups to hide this fact
from view - as per above - specifically in order to prevent men from
becoming consciously aware of the
fact that when it comes to being treated badly, men victims outnumber
women victims by far.
4. Successful demonisation.
The abuse industry - which is vast in size - consists of millions
of people who want to maintain their jobs and their pensions. These people
often demonise men in order to make a better living. As such, they support
feminist ideology because, essentially, it
portrays men as being continually abusive in some way.
The powerful tabloid media also make millions of
dollars from generating abuse hysteria
The powerful tabloid media also make millions of dollars from
generating abuse hysteria - which is mostly directed against men.
Top executives in many large companies have also been very keen to
demonise men; because their businesses usually make their profits at the margins.
As such, they can often increase their profits quite substantially by
decreasing - even by a small amount - the likelihood that men and women will form close relationships. (For example,
see
Fathers Groups Miss the Big Picture and
Just 5% Will Do .)
Women, of course, have also gained substantially (vis-a-vis men) in almost every area
of life by demonising men.
And, as indicated above, governments benefit hugely from the
demonisation of men.
In other words, there are billions of dollars to be made and numerous
advantages to be gained by millions of people from demonising men - and so demonising men is a huge enterprise.
And one result of all this demonisation has been that even men are now
imbued with hatred towards men; the mainstream acceptability of Bobbit
jokes and jokes about prison rapes standing as a shining testament as to
how effective has been this demonisation.
Men really are hated.
Men really are hated.
And now, even men mostly do not care about men.
5. Loss of self-identity.
As I say in my piece
What A
Piece of Sh#t is Man, ...
[W]hat man wants to identify himself
with the type of person who is continually being portrayed as the lowest
and most unpleasant form of human being that exists? ...
... my point being that men would nowadays prefer not to be seen as
'men'.
As an example of this, try telling a male police officer that all male police officers
are brainless idiots, and I can almost guarantee you that he will not look too pleased.
But tell him that all men are brainless idiots - which amounts
to the same thing - and he will
probably laugh.
You see. He sees himself as a police officer, not as a 'man'.
(But if you try telling a woman police officer that all women
are brainless idiots, then you will almost certainly see a different reaction; because women do see themselves as 'women'.)
Men just do not see themselves as 'men'. They see
themselves primarily as blacks, as Jews, ...
Men just do not see themselves as 'men'. They see
themselves primarily as blacks, as Jews, as Christians, as accountants, as
bricklayers, as Republicans, as Manchester United
supporters, as Americans, etc etc. But not as 'men'.
And so, for example, they do not actually identify
themselves as being the creatures that they so often see being mistreated, demonised and disadvantaged.
As such, they do not feel the need to do anything about
this.
You can see a similar type of failure to develop proper
self-awareness and identification in many highly-intelligent animals, such as dolphins.
For example, dolphins will continue to mill around the
waters wherein their defenceless comrades are being harpooned and killed. These
intelligent animals can see all the blood, the carnage and the death, and yet they do
not swim away.
It is as if they remain unaware that they, themselves,
are being threatened by such slaughter despite their high
intelligence.
Men behave similarly.
6. Failure to recognise an enemy.
Unlike women, men tend to be competitive in nature
when they interact with each other. And they seem mostly to cooperate
closely only
when they can identify some kind of common adversary that needs to be
dealt with.
But because they cannot yet actually recognise the
existence of many of their common adversaries (as per some of the points above) there
seems, to them, to be no reason to cooperate in any endeavour designed to
combat them.
After all, they do not exist!
In other words, men simply do not yet recognise that
there exist various forces and organisations that are specifically aiming
to hurt them in some way.
They mostly cannot yet see these adversaries. And
when,
indeed, they can see them, then, just like the dolphins, they do not
fully recognise that they, themselves, are their actual targets.
most political activists who seek smaller
government ... do not actually address the fact that feminism has been one
of the main causes of the rise in the size of government
A really good example of this was discussed in my piece
Male Bloggers Failing Miserably;
wherein I pointed out that most political activists who seek smaller
government (such as those whom one might brand as libertarians or
conservatives) do not actually address the fact that feminism has been one
of the main causes of the rise in the size of government over the past few
decades.
So. Are they blind?
Why have they failed to recognise this particular
'enemy' of theirs?
The answer, of course, is that they cannot see feminism
as an enemy because it does not enter their equations. And the reason for
this is that the huge forces mentioned above have been very careful to
ensure that feminism is never linked to anything bad.
So, in much the same way that, for example, feminism is
never publicly linked to the dramatic recent increase in carbon emissions by those groups that have much
influence in this area (e.g. the mainstream, the politicians, the global
warming scientists, the school teachers etc) so it is that feminism is not
publicly
linked to the size of the government.
(If you do not see how feminism increases carbon
emissions, see Feminism
causes traffic congestion and global warming.)
And this is why most of our libertarian and conservative
bloggers do not see the connections between feminism and the things that
they are forever complaining about.
Indeed, whenever there has been bad or worrying news to
discuss publicly in the recent past, feminism has been deftly disappeared
out of sight.
Similarly, when one hears anti-government maestros such
as Alex Jones or David Icke
talking about all the lies and the fantastical conspiracies that, they
allege, are being perpetrated by the Illuminati and various lofty others
in order to keep us in our place (aliens on the moon, UFOs, 9/11, JFK,
hidden viruses, drugged tap water, etc etc etc) it seems very strange that
rarely is feminism mentioned - given that feminism clearly empowers
hugely
the very people that Mr Jones and Mr Icke seek forever to warn us about.
Once again; this particular enemy - feminism - just
cannot be identified as such.
It is off their radar screens.
7. Biology.
Men were biologically designed to protect women and to find
vulnerable women attractive; e.g. see
Women and Chimps.
As such, men are easily manipulated into helping women who appear to be
vulnerable.
Men and women, on the other hand, do not find vulnerable men to be
attractive. As such, they are not concerned to help men who appear to be
vulnerable.
Indeed, men are not biologically prone to helping men; especially vis-a-vis women.
(The same is true for males throughout nearly all the animal kingdom.)
8. Culture and chivalry.
For a long time western culture has convinced people that being
chivalrous is both good and manly, and so most men believe that it is
their duty to protect women (or to look as if it is) and to assist them when they claim to need
help. In addition, chivalry requires a preparedness for men to sacrifice
their own well-being for the sake of women and children.
And this cultural attitude has prevented many men from being concerned
about the fact that women's needs and desires are continually being put ahead of their own.
Indeed, so deeply ingrained is this that jurors - both men and women - will often convict
innocent men on the shakiest (and, sometimes, the most preposterous) of evidence rather than risk letting a rapist
or a child abuser go free.
there are now many western laws that treat innocent men
appallingly when they are merely accused of abusing women
And there are now many western laws that treat innocent men appallingly
when they are merely accused of abusing women, while letting off the
hook almost entirely many women who have committed very serious crimes against
men.
And this code of chivalry not only clearly prevents many men from
complaining about this state of affairs, many men do actually believe that
there is nothing particularly wrong with such mistreatment if women are
being
protected by it.
9. Psychology.
Western men are highly affected by what women think of them. And
they often look to women to make decisions about what their attitudes and
their values should be. For example, comedians know full well that if they
make the women in their audiences laugh, then the men will laugh. But if
the women do not find something funny, then the men will feel the same way.
Indeed, it is women who tend to decide what people may laugh about or
cry about.
And given that western women have been infused with feminist propaganda
for the past four decades, their attitudes towards men who, for example,
seem to express anti-feminist or even light-hearted anti-women sentiments, tend to be highly
negative; something which men would prefer to avoid.
All in all, therefore, men tend to refrain from expressing or supporting
openly, any
opinions that bring about the disapproval of women.
10. Feminist domination of the mainstream media.
Feminism has been over 120 years in the making. And for nearly all
this time, the mainstream media have had a virtual monopoly on the flow of
information to the public. These media have been very heavily influenced
by government and by business, both of which benefit a great deal by
pandering to women and by portraying men negatively.
(For example, see
Fathers Groups Miss the Big Picture and
Just 5% Will Do .)
The virtual stranglehold that media feminists gained
over the media some four decades ago further entrenched the anti-male bias
...
The virtual stranglehold that media feminists gained over the media
some four decades ago further entrenched the anti-male bias in the
information that was being fed to the public.
And men who have tried to get support for the creation of men's organisations have been
purposely blocked from arguing their case in the mainstream.
11. Lethargy.
Most men have been too busy with their lives and with their various
interests to have enough time left over to devote seriously to other matters. And
most of the spare time that they have had to themselves has probably been spent unwinding
and relaxing.
Men's activism and understanding the issues, however, require quite a lot of work, and so it is not
surprising that few men can summon the effort to get seriously engaged
with these things in their spare time.
In contrast, however, millions of women have had the opportunity to
engage in feminist activism - and to be affected by it - not only through
their government-funded groups but also through the mainstream; e.g. via
the
highly-misandric afternoon chat shows that started flooding the TV screens
in the late 70s.
.......
In summary, therefore, it is hardly surprising that men have not formed
large
groups concerned with their own well-being. The most powerful and
influential of
our organisations have been deceiving them on many fronts, and so
they have not been aware of what has been going on.
They have been demonised so effectively
by these organisations that even men no longer like 'men'.
Indeed, so much so is
this true that men nowadays mostly refuse to identify themselves as 'men';
preferring to see themselves as something else.
And so out of touch are they with their very own selves, that they cannot
even appreciate that they, themselves, are being targeted whenever, and
wherever, 'men' are being targeted.
The mainstream media have blocked most attempts by men to counter all the
anti-male prejudice, and many of those men who
have tried to speak up have been
intimidated and/or punished in some way; something which has discouraged
many
others.
And, for various reasons, governments are very unwilling to support
groups that are truly concerned with men's issues.
The biologicai make-up of men and their psychology both conspire to
inhibit their concern for the well-being of men vis-a-vis women, and their
entire culture endorses this.
And, no doubt, there are many other important factors that have, and
will continue to have, a mighty tendency to inhibit the growth of
organisations concerned with the general well-being of men.
Nevertheless, I remain convinced that the MM will continue to grow.
That it is unstoppable. And that, in the end, it will prevail.
Nevertheless, I remain convinced that the MM will continue to grow.
That it is unstoppable. And that, in the end, it will prevail.
With regard to politically-effective formal men's organisations materialising,
of course, I hope that this happens. But I do not envisage much development
in this area over the next decade or two, for two main reasons.
1. The internet - the only realistic means currently of garnering
support for the development of men's organisations - is not very helpful when it comes to focusing efforts
into supporting one particular group. The internet encourages the
breakdown, not the build up, of large powerful cohesive group structures.
2. The truly enormous self-serving forces currently at play are far too
powerful to be much affected by various budding men's organisations - making the latter
seem pointless to support, for the moment.
For example, if the mainstream media refuse to pay attention to men's
issues (which, thus far, has been the case) then, effectively, men's
organisations cannot achieve very much and, as such,
men will not bother to support them.
Why should they, if they are ineffective?
All in all, therefore, my own view is that the only way forward is for
men to grow, within cyberspace, a 'male consciousness' - which, in my
view, is actually the best way to describe the "Men's Movement".
It is a consciousness.
And this consciousness is very definitely growing.
But it is going to have to grow to be vast in order to continue countering successfully those
huge forces that insist on hurting men.
It really will have to be positively huge in order to exert the
continued influence that is required.
It will need to have more influence than governments. More influence
than the tabloid media. More influence than the abuse industry. More
influence than the feminists. More
influence than the desire for money by big businesses. More influence than
'women'. And, probably, more influence than some significant aspects of
men's very own biology and inherent psychology.
As such, the whole task seems rather daunting.
And, once again, it is surely not surprising that, thus far, no large men's organisations have emerged.
However, matters are not quite as bad as they might seem.
And perhaps we only need to remember two things in order to appreciate
that the MM can, and will, succeed.
1. A tiny virus can kill an elephant.
2. 50% of the population are men.
And so while it is true that huge forces need to be overcome, and
continually overcome, in order for the MM to prevail, and for men's
organisations to grow and to become successful, it seems to me that the
groundwork for these developments is already being done - right here,
right now - and that the internet is going to provide support for the
growth of a very large male consciousness; one that is
self-reflective, self-aware and, indeed, extremely powerful.
And there will surely soon come a point when there are enough committed and
effective MRAs in action to wage very significant wars against those who
hurt men.
And to win them.
Indeed, in my view, just a few thousand such activists would probably be sufficient
to turn the tide completely.
In conclusion, therefore, there have been unimaginably huge forces at
work throughout the past century which have undermined, at every level,
the chances of developing any groups or organisations concerned with the
well-being of 'men'.
these forces are slowly being countered by MRAs
Now, however, these forces are slowly being countered by MRAs. And
while it might yet take many more years before strongly-influential formal
men's organisations finally materialise, the consciousness that is the MM
will soon start exerting a very powerful force that is concerned with the
well-being of men.
And - certainly for the moment - this persistent and ever-growing force
- this consciousness -
will arise mostly through general activism via the internet; rather than through the
typical activities
of more formal organisations.
Furthermore, while the internet remains available, this process cannot be
stopped.
From an activist point of view, therefore, the current primary goal
should be to increase both the depth and the spread of this consciousness
throughout the minds of as many men as possible.
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