Frames, Feminism and Men's Rights Advocates

“Feminism seeks to address gender inequality not just because doing so benefits women and girls, but because the presence of sexual discrimination and sexual violence is bad for everyone. … In the MRA view, mens and women’s interests sit in opposition to each other – if women win, men lose. When mens rights activists call for men to stand up because “feminism has gone too far”, they are implicitly stating that women and men can’t both benefit from gender equality. Whenever women gain power, men must lose it, and feminism has caused men to lose so much power that they must now fight to take some back. The gender struggle is a zero-sum game. So, feminists and mens rights activists disagree on two fronts: They disagree about the facts – whether women really have gained “too much” power at the expense of men (feminists would argue that living in a sexist society makes it difficult for men to recognise the true extent of the male privilege they still enjoy). But more importantly, they disagree on how the issue is framed; the MRA view men’s and women’s rights as being in opposition to each other, while mainstream feminists see gender equality as a net good to everyone.

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Venn diagram from Angstier Than Thou


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