Friday, January 27, 2012

That's Women's Work

I had a telling conversation with an MRA recently.

Over at Alas, where I cross-posted an article, the conversation in the comments turned to MRAs and their fixation on feminism as the root of all evil. There, I noted:

"...[W]hen some MRAs bring up the statistics of men dying earlier than women, working in more dangerous occupations, etc., they usually do so without any analysis of why those statistics are the way they are. The general point seems to be: Bad Things Happen To Men Too, Therefore Patriarchy/Male Privilege Doesn’t Exist.

Which, you know, fine. Deny the existence of Patriarchy and male privilege. But if they’re not examining the factors that causes men to die earlier, or why men work in more dangerous occupations, or why there’s a 'myth of men not being hot,' those problems aren’t just going to disappear by blaming feminists for them or denying Patriarchy/male privilege.

So, the concern about these issues doesn’t, from my perspective, look sincere when it’s only put forth for those purposes.

It’s like, really? Don’t want men to disproportionately work in dangerous jobs? Push for better safety protection laws. Push for an end to the harassment of women who try to enter those professions. Push for an end to defining certain jobs as 'manly.'”

In response, an MRA defender, Clarence, wrote:

"Men, let alone MRA’s can’t simply 'snap their fingers' and make that happen."

He then proceeded to claim that women, what with our "sexual selectivity" and all, help define what's "manly" and so the onus is on women to change, and feminists to convince women to change.

LOL.

Thusly we learn that because men can't just snap their fingers and fix their plight, it is apparently up to feminist women to advocate, blog, protest, organize, lobby, and basically do all the gritty shitwork to solve the plight of men and if we refuse to prioritize MRA concerns we're so mean and evil and man-hating.

What about teh menz indeed.

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