The Answer: A Case for Integration

Since the initial burst of growth in the online Mens Movement (circa 2000), the question of what we wish to accomplish, and how we should go about it, has dominated much of the internal political discourse.  The topic has swirled around in the background now for well over a decade with no resolution in sight.

Until now, this has been one of our strengths as a movement.  The Mens Movement is about as 'grass roots', as 'anarchistic' of a movement as I can imagine.  Literally, no 'official' leadership with adoption of ideas based simply on debate and general acceptance of the 'membership'.

The problem is, this hyper-democratic approach does not work once we have attracted the attention of those who would twist the movement to their own ends, and have the resources to become a majority of posters on whichever discussion board they wish.  It can hardly be argued that the movement isn't daily assailed by 'tone police' and trolls, as well as those genuinely trying to argue our movement is unnecessary.

As well, there has been 'adoptions' of relatively new, nebulous, vaguely positive sounding goals attributed to the Mens Movement that are wholly a product of the latest influx of neophytes.  This is born of generalized ignorance of mens issues, utter lack of understanding of human nature, and unrealistic approaches that are frankly characteristic of newby anythings.  I have no doubt at all, though, that a good portion of these newcomers are false flag MRAs pretending 'agreement' while taking for granted, for instance, that Patriarchy Theory has merit, and arguing for 'smashing male Gender Roles' (this is different from Feminism how exactly?) is 'what the MRM is about'.

I will leave to another time the subject of the actual goals of the MRM, although I will share my own beliefs on what some of them are (or were).  What I want to address here is The Way Forward.

A Confession.

I have a confession to make.  I'm a Socialist.

That might surprise the Hell out of a lot of MRAs to hear, and it'll definitely surprise, say, the mods at reddit/mensrights to hear it, but I am.

I am horrified, for example, at the idea of not getting medical care because you can't afford it.  That's just plain stupid.  So is losing everything you own because you had a heart attack.

I believe there are certain things, like electricity, or water, that should be delivered by public utilities, not a for-profit corporation, and that Unions serve a useful purpose, even today in an age where most unions have themselves seemingly forgotten what they are for.

Who put the 'H' in the MHRM?

I just had one of the more interesting conversations I have had in my long 'career' as a Mens Activist.  I don't think I am stepping on toes revealing his identity as James Huff, who has sent me a document that I think will prove to be a catalyst for major social change worldwide, beginning with the Manosphere, and propogating outward.

But more on that later...

One of the topics that came up was the whole Tempest in a Teapot over the M(H)RM thing.  I personally thought of it as a 'Department of Redundancy Department' sort of move, but if someone wanted to add a letter to an essentially meaningless acronym, who was I to object?

As it turns out, that isn't the only viewpoint on the matter.

It did occur to me that by adopting this additional letter, it would dilute the focus on men and boys, specifically, but my belief was essentially that the issues and articles define the direction, not the label.

What I did not count on, or anticipate in any way, is how this simple 'inclusive' wording change would spur all manner of claims and counter claims as to the legitimacy of views.  Suddenly the MRM was a segment on a spectrum of a much larger 'social movement' known as Human Rights...a world in which men were the antagonist, not the sympathetic creature.  To my astonishment, the warnings of Thought Policing and Identity Politics dominating the MRM as a result became manifest in the strangest of places.  I do not know where this schism came from, or if it will pass into the fog of memory without much ado.

What I can say is that it has exposed a need.  A need for guiding principles, a method of understanding.  A critical base, from which logical structures can be formed.  I understand that part of the reason behind the inclusion of the 'H' is to communicate that the issues facing men, are issues crippling society, and therefore harming women.

And this is laudable.  But in my view completely outside the scope of the MRM in terms of actual mission.  It's great that this understanding of life as a non-feminist female is forming into a viable alternative for women to adopt, but the real problem is that we have focussed on that so much, we have failed (once again) to put men 'first' enough to do the same for them.

We don't provide a plan.  We don't provide a means to learn, other than throwing people head first into the fray.

We utterly fail at the most basic of missions an 'activist' can have...the effective education of Joe Sixpack.  And while I assume the 'H' in MRM thing was an attempt to address this shortcoming, I believe the attempt backfired.  I will leave my guesses as to why that is unsaid.

Going forward, we need to get better.  Because, as my conversation with James made clear to me, this is not just about Mens Rights anymore.  This is a new social awakening, a template we are creating for the world to consider.

That's 7 Billion potential 'customers' for our ideas.  Ideas that are beginning to take hold in the public consciousness, no matter what our detractors say.  This means we have a lot more responsibility to face up to than this movement has thus far been willing to admit.  Myself included.

Now, I'm going to get to work reading this Magnum Opus that James sent.  Give the idea some thought, and we'll talk later.

*UPDATE*

Having read the document James sent me in full, I can tell you right now that this is not only a Game changer, it is what the Mens Movement NEEDS to do.  It is what I would call 'the way forward'.  There will be more forthcoming but for now I will simply say, if this works, we will become orders of magnitude more effective, overnight.

Colour me excited.

MRm! Magazine - A call for Content

I've been getting a few requests for info regarding contributions to MRm! There's actually a lot more I want to do with this magazine, and frankly it's hard to get noticed these days as an artist of any flavour...

So, here's what I would have at my disposal in an ideal world:

Article Subjects:
DV
Custody/Parental Issues
Crime/Prison Issues (incarceration rates, sentencing disparity, etc)
Journalism/Media Bias
Political Issues/ Politicians selling out men for profit / naming and shaming
Health Issues
Sexuality / Dating / Demonization

Outside of those, anything that's interesting is, er, of interest.

I have to say, looking around for this stuff on the blogosphere has opened my eyes as to how many great writers there are out there.

As to other stuff...

I also want to have a regular one page feature called "Activist Corner", where a worthy project gets a full page article to explain their thing. Issue 5's is already set (FRTF), but I need some in the hopper as I'm already halfway done Issue 6, and I need to keep the monster fed.

If you are a Cartoonist, I REALLY want to speak to you. I hope to have at least one strip in the mag, plus I would love to have one or two people good at one panel cartoons. There have GOT to be a few of you who either do this, or did at one time...so contact me. It could be fun, and more importantly any success MRm! has will be yours as well.

I also want to find a designer or two, AND photographers would be most welcome. I know these careers are Image-conscious, so alias' are fine...of course.

If you've got one of these skills, and you've been sitting around thinking "You know, I should really figure something out to help this cause out"...well, here's a chance.

And the more popular this mag is, the more likely it is that people will follow the links to your website...

The contact email is: mrm.magazine@gmail.com