Wednesday, February 3, 2016

MRAs Plan Social Meetups

[Content note: misogyny, transphobia, homophobia]

It's being reported that Men's Rights Activists (MRAs) are planning in-person meetups for each other, organized by a popular "pick-up artist."

From DNAinfo, I just have two items of note:

1) One stated purpose is for the men (heterosexual and cis only, guys!) to build meaningful relationships with one another. Because apparently they have trouble with that. Which I'm sure is a shock to literally everyone reading this.

2) The other purpose is:
By meeting in person, the men can more strongly connect and bond, as well as reaffirm their beliefs about "the enemy" — more specifically, the women they are trying to "pick up."
Here, I note that the framing of women as "the enemy" of men is an outgrowth of the belief that men and women are "complementary" or "opposites." This Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus worldview is accepted as "common sense" and advocated by many conservatives, anti-feminists, and MRAs in service of both sexism and homophobia.

If men are allies with one another, then  under this way of thinking of course women are their opponents, who must be "conquered" through seduction, dishonesty, and/or force.

It is with irony that I further note here the popular MRA talking point about Andrea Dworkin and /or Catherine MacKinnon as having believed some variation of how "all heterosexual sex is rape."

Like so many things patriarchal, that claim seems to be a projection of many MRAs beliefs: Female consent to heterosexual sex is unfair to men, which constitutes oppression, which means men should find ways to undercut consent. Extending the sexual entitlement further, their distinction between sex and rape becomes marginal. The subtext is not only "heterosexual sex is rape," but "heterosexual sex must be, should be, rape."

Have fun at your gathering, bro-dudes.

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