Kanada: Studentenvereinigung sperrt sich gegen Männergruppen

Der Versuch von Männern, mit ihren Anliegen so wie zuvor die Frauen im akademischen Bereich Fuß zu fassen, stößt in Kanada noch immer auf massive Blockadeversuche. Diese gehen inzwischen in aggressive Verleumdungskampagnen über, in denen es über die Männerrechtler heißt:

"The groups provide environments for sexism, patriarchy, and misogyny to manifest and be perpetuated on campus" and "promote misogynist, hateful views toward women and ideologies that promote gender equity, challenges women’s bodily autonomy, justifies sexual assault, and decries feminism as violent."

"Messages from these groups claim to be of equality, but are in fact messages that are misogynist, sexist, cissexist, heterosexist, and homophobic responses to the challenge of cis-male privilege in society."

Derlei geradezu überschnappende Agitation kennt man auch im deutschsprachigen Raum. Anders als hierzulande erhält diese Hetze in Kanada allerdings keine Plattform in den Medien, wo sich Journalisten zu Multiplikatoren machen – im Gegenteil. In der kanadischen Tageszeitung "National Post" erklärt die Journalistin Robyn Urback, was von dem feministischen Kriegsgetrommel zu halten ist:

Needless to say, the description is fraught with a number of bold, unsubstantiated — and frankly, wrong — statements. (...) Ah, I see what you did there, CFS. It’s OK for men to gather as a group, just as long as they don’t "intimidate women". The problem, of course, is that it really doesn’t matter what men’s rights groups have in their mission statements — or on their posters, or who they have speaking at their events. Opponents of men’s groups on campus have proven, time and time again, that they are opposed to the concept of men’s rights in principle, and find intimidation in the very idea. And will thrust forward every "ism" in the Human Rights Code in order to justify their defence.

Über das Verhalten der Studentenvereinigung an der Universität Toronto, nachdem auch dort Männer ihre Position einbringen wollten, berichtet Urback:

U of T student union quickly responded with a motion to condemn the university and to ban access to a particular men’s rights awareness website from U of T servers. Not only was the union opposed to men’s rights speakers on campus — however innocuous their message may have been — but it was also against allowing staff and students to access the ideas while on the university server. Hey, maybe we can petition the Canadian government to take men’s groups off the Internet altogether?

This type of blanket opposition to men’s programs was also evident last May when the student union at Simon Fraser University allocated $30,000 of its budget to create a men’s centre on campus. The space was conceived by its creators at a safe space for male students to find resources and support, but was lambasted by detractors in a YouTube video as a place that would "celebrate hegemonic masculinity." The Women’s Centre on campus, further, said it would not support a men’s centre that "focused on maintaining the old boys club … that promotes the status quo, encourages sexual assault, or fosters an atmosphere of competition and violence." Um — who said anything about encouraging sexual assault?

It is that sort of hyperbolic misrepresentation that perpetually stunts efforts to create resources for male students on campus, and gives fodder to CFS to pull out their favourite oppression lexicons in drafting motions. Suffice to say that a group for men doesn’t necessarily equate to a group against women, just as a group for Christian students on campus doesn’t amount an assembly against Jews or Muslims. I don’t doubt there may be a member or two with some less-than-politically-correct views on the roles of men and women, but to paint all men’s rights groups with the same broad brush (never mind to unabashedly label them all as assault-apologists) is to unfairly characterize an entire group of students. Not to mention half the human race. According to my lexicon, it’s incredibly prejudicial.

Man kann sich nur wünschen, dass deutsche Journalisten über dieselbe moralische Reife wie ihre kanadischen Kolleginnen verfügten.