Nachrichtenseite beleuchtet "die wahre Tragödie der Männerrechtsbewegung"

Die bekannte US-Nachrichtenseite "The Daily Beast" berichtet heute in einem extrem ausführlichen Artikel über die Männerrechtsbewegung, die der Verfasser des Beitrags, R. Tod Kelly, als "eine der eigenartigsten, am schnellsten wachsenden und frustrierendsten Bürgerrechtsbewegungen der westlichen Welt von heute" bezeichnet. Kelly schildert den problematischen Spagat zwischen den wichtigen und bislang übergangenen Anliegen dieser Bewegung und dem mitunter mehr als übergeschnappt wirkenden, hassvollen Verbalradialismus einiger ihrer Mitglieder. In einer Passage geht er auf die Argumentation des Männerrechtlers Paul Elam ein, der darlegt, warum dieser Radikalismus seiner Auffassung nach notwendig sei, um Aufmerksamkeit zu gewinnen:

From Elam’s point of view, the vitriol engrained in the movement is a necessary evil in order to draw attention to worthy causes. He says he knows the inflammatory language has to be temporary. "I very much hope the day soon comes when it isn’t necessary," he says. And maybe he’s right. Maybe the movement needs the attention to grow, and maybe once it grows to sufficient size its leaders will be able to sit down with opponents and have those rational discussions.

Perhaps—though history shows us that ideological movements rarely, if ever, get to a point where they feel they don’t need any more donations, media attention, or page hits. And even if Elam is sincere in his desire to dial down the vitriol once the movement is large enough, there’s an inherent problem with growing a political movement largely by referring to women as bitches, whores and c**ts. At the end of the day, you have a lot of members who joined up simply because they liked calling women bitches, whores and c**ts—and any eventual pleas to come together and sing "Kumbaya" could likely fall on deaf ears.

This, of course, is the real tragedy of the MRM. Male victims of domestic abuse need more help than they’re currently getting, as do male victims of sexual assault. Lower-income divorced fathers need a different system to ensure the well-being of their children. But all of this help requires both financial and political resources, and getting society to allocate those resources requires support and interest from the larger tax-paying community.

What the MRM doesn’t seem to realize is that every time they lionize someone who says a four-year-old girl drowning is a good thing, or giggle over a leader bragging about taking sexual advantage of a woman who’s too drunk to understand what’s happening to her, or theorize that fat women want to be forcibly raped, or float a preposterous claim that women’s brains are physically incapable of comprehending morality, they only put those resources that much further out of reach. It is telling to note that of the professional male-victim advocacy organizations I spoke with, every single one specifically asked that I not allow readers to think they were in any way related to the MRM.

The MRM has long begged for mainstream attention. Now that it is finally getting its wish, it needs to ask itself what it truly wants: page hits or policy changes.

In der deutschen Männerrechtsbewegung gibt es bekanntlich dieselbe Kluft: Während die eine Fraktion auf eine konstruktive Männerpolitik hinwirken will, steht für die andere eine hohe Zugriffszahl auf ihre Websites an erster Stelle, wofür das Ziel der ersten Fraktion immer wieder sabotiert werden muss. Gerade gestern sah sich einmal mehr eine der seriösen Websites der deutschen Männerrechtsbewegung gezwungen, sich von den radikalen Dampfplauderern zu distanzieren. Man darf gespannt sein, wie lange dieses Tauziehen noch so weitergeht und wohin es führen wird.