General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsInside the Men's Rights Movement—and the Army of Misogynists and Trolls It Spawned (Trump)
New York Magazine recently published a quiz asking, "Who Said It, Donald Trump or a Mens Rights Activist?"
http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/05/who-said-it-donald-trump-or-an-mra.html
This quiz brings up the gender resentment that Donald Trump is catering to. When Trump attacks successful women whether they be Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Megyn Kelly or Susana Martinez, he is definitely not picking them based on their ideology. Rather, it is the fact that his supporters feel resentful of the success of high profile women. This is why Trump can brazenly act like a misogynist. Indeed, Trump's candidacy legitimizes the concerns of many men that women have it easy.
Even Trump's pandering to gain Bernie supporters is aimed at portraying the Democratic party as hostile to men by describing a man, Bernie Sanders, being oppressed by two women.
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-statement-on-debating-bernie-sanders
Based on the fact that the Democratic nominating process is totally rigged and Crooked Hillary Clinton and Deborah Wasserman Schultz will not allow Bernie Sanders to win, and now that I am the presumptive Republican nominee, it seems inappropriate that I would debate the second place finisher. Likewise, the networks want to make a killing on these events and are not proving to be too generous to charitable causes, in this case, womens health issues. Therefore, as much as I want to debate Bernie Sanders - and it would be an easy payday - I will wait to debate the first place finisher in the Democratic Party, probably Crooked Hillary Clinton, or whoever it may be.
In the eyes of Trump and his supporters, the system is rigged against men. Mother Jones published an article discussing the men's right movement:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/warren-farrell-mens-rights-movement-feminism-misogyny-trolls
In 1993, Farrell published his full-throated manifesto, The Myth of Male Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex. The book tackled a number of pressing issues affecting men. It also took some bizarre turns: At one point Farrell pondered whether the American male was the new "nigger." ("When slaves gave up their seats for whites, we called it subservience; when men give up their seats for women, we call it politeness." He took a sledgehammer to bedrock feminist ideals, claiming that women have themselves to blame for unequal pay, that domestic violence is a two-way street, and that government programs to benefit women only exacerbate inequality.
Farrell also argued that female sexual power was eclipsing any societal advantages that men might have. "The powerful woman doesn't feel the effect of her secretary's miniskirt power, cleavage power and flirtation power," he wrote. "Men do." And thanks to feminism, he argued, when women felt ill-treated they could now more easily pursue sexual-harassment or date rape chargesa notion that carries strong currency among today's men's rights activists. "No one has taught men to sue women for sexual trauma for saying 'yes,' then 'no,' then 'yes,'" Farrell opined. "Men were left with less than one option. They were still expected to initiate, but now, if they did it badly, they could go to jail."
The Myth of Male Power struck a chord among a new generation of would-be activists for whom "male disposability" became a rallying cry. "It's their bible," says Michael Kimmel, a sociologist who studies gender issues at New York's Stony Brook University. "It's really the foundational text."
* * *
Elam, who had been working as a drug and alcohol counselor, became convinced that his field was rife with anti-male bias. "We began to identify and treat masculinity as the disease and the cure for it was misandrythe hatred of men and boys," he would later write. "Men's groups devolved into sessions of shame, clinically applied and charged for by the hour." Elam began raising unsettling questions, such as why women checking into the clinic were routinely asked whether they'd been battered while men were asked whether they'd hit their wives. His colleagues' reaction was "incredibly hostile," he told me, which only stoked his rage. Eventually, he waded into the manosphere. While he was put off by the bigotry and conspiracy mongering, he believed the internet could help rally scattered men's rights activists into a formidable movement. In 2009, Elam, who was now working as a truck driver, launched A Voice for Men from a laptop in the cab of his 18-wheeler. "I aimed to attract the kind of people who could make a movement," he said, "women, people of color, gay menanybody regardless of demographic, as long as they were aware of and concerned by issues of men."
niyad
(113,860 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,773 posts)he's about their style, I guess. Lot of victimhood and whining by both.
TomCADem
(17,390 posts)In addition to the obvious appeals to racism, Trump is also very consciously appealing to resentment by men of the success of women. I think this is a very powerful appeal that Democrats risk underestimating. It scapegoats women for any insecurities men might feel with respect to women whether it be for dating, in a relationship, or in the workplace.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/05/08/trump_remember_this_when_you_see_hillarys_phony_paid-for-by-wall_street_ads.html
"They've already taken $90 million worth of ads," he said. "And their ads are all woman-oriented. You know she is playing the women's card... She's going: Did you know that Donald Trump raised his voice when speaking to a woman? Oh, I'm sorry."
"I mean. All of the men, we're petrified to speak to women anymore. We may raise our voice," he said. "You know what? The women get it better than we do folks. They get it better than we do. If she didn't play that card, she has nothing."
"Now she's going to buy $90 million worth of ads about Donald Trump -- And that's only the first go. They've go $2 billion. They could have $2 billion to spend. They're going to spend $90 million on bad ads about me, having to do with women. There is nobody who respects women more than I do," he said.
"They're taking $90 million dollars worth of phony ads --and some of [the things quoted by the ads] were said for entertainment purposes, one of them was said, like, on The Apprentice... We're living in the real world. This political correctness is killing our country."
Small Accumulates
(149 posts)Thanks for bringing this together in one place.
Different Drummer
(7,677 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)I can sincerely and truthfully say that I never once hit my husband, nor did I taunt him or try to emasculate him into beating me.
When men write about their victimhood at the hands of women they have a real problem with acknowledging the real culprits in their loser lives.
TomCADem
(17,390 posts)When you hear Trump attacking women all across the ideological spectrum whether it be Megyn Kelley or Susana Martinez to Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren, I think what you are seeing is a deep rooted resentment towards successful women. Worse, to the extent that they are the subject of abuse, harassment or even violence, there is this idea that women are ultimately at fault.
Trump is hardly alone. Many Republicans, including such mainstream Republicans as Paul Ryan, have pushed the idea of legitimate rape as a defense by men against women allegedly being quick to persecute them through charges of rape. However, Trump does drop the dog whistle and replaces it with a bullhorn in actively attacking women who simply fail to actively support him.
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/09/it_wasnt_ray_rices_fault_the_sick_twisted_logic_of_mens_rights_activists_on_domestic_violence/
The video of Ray Rice is domestic violence in action: Rice hits his fiancée, she hits a railing on the way down, and then he calmly pulls her limp body out of an elevator. The only time he displays a shred of emotion is when he has trouble getting her legs to clear the elevator door. But if you think concrete video evidence is enough to convince people that Rice was horribly wrong, you must be new to the Internet. The denizens of r/MensRights have a lot to say about Ray Rice and domestic abuse, and it is disturbing:
He defended himself from her first attack and moved away, then she came for a second attack and he defended himself, she fell and hit her head on the rail. As the research says, the strongest predictor of a woman being injured by DV (domestic violence), is her own initiation of violence.
IronLionZion
(45,628 posts)those people are certifiably insane and scary.
Things get interesting when you stumble upon anti-feminist women writers like Janet Bloomfield:
http://thoughtcatalog.com/janet-bloomfield/2014/11/7-reasons-why-dating-feminist-men-truly-sucks/
http://thoughtcatalog.com/janet-bloomfield/2015/02/5-reasons-women-love-rape-fantasies/
http://thoughtcatalog.com/janet-bloomfield/2015/03/if-feminism-is-about-equality-why-do-feminists-oppose-equality/
http://thoughtcatalog.com/janet-bloomfield/2015/04/7-things-feminists-hate-to-hear/
http://thoughtcatalog.com/janet-bloomfield/2015/04/how-to-teach-a-man-to-eat-pussy-without-being-a-total-btch/
For the record, I love smart successful women, but I have zero tolerance for anyone who is abusive.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)Because if you're conditioned to always think that you're superior, equality will feel like oppression to you.