Huffington Post: "Kontroverse Konferenz von Männerrechtlern befeuert Backlash"

A men's rights group that purports to address "the bigotry that is routinely practiced against men and boys in this culture" will hold its first major event this month, even as protesters are fighting for the conference to be cancelled.

A Voice for Men, a site started as a personal blog in 2008 by Paul Elam, is organizing the International Conference on Men’s Issues for late June at a Hilton DoubleTree hotel in Detroit. More than a dozen speakers will address topics ranging from paternity fraud to circumcision to disparities in graduation rates.

(...) A Voice for Men is one of the most visible and active among many men's rights activism (MRA) sites, video channels and forums for people (including some women) who are involved in the movement. The group asserts that men are oppressed in American society and aims to push back against feminism. Some have criticized MRA for packaging misogyny as promoting equal rights for men. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization, has described men's rights sites as "thick with misogynistic attacks" and "dedicated to savaging feminists in particular and women, very typically American women, in general."

The Detroit men's rights conference comes just after 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and himself last week in California in a mass shooting near the University of California, Santa Barbara. Prior to the killing spree, Rodger posted a manifesto online that was full of misogynistic statements, explaining the killing was revenge on women for their lack of attraction towards him and suggesting that women not be allowed to choose their sexual partners.

Several outlets have linked Rodger to men's rights groups, and he appears to have posted on a site for men to commiserate about "pickup artists" and allegedly left comments on a bodybuilding site. Elam said those postings are unrelated to his or other MRA sites, and added that Rodger is not involved with A Voice for Men. Elam said both he and his site are committed to nonviolence.

A group of more than a dozen women and men from the Detroit area created an online petition this week calling on Hilton hotel chain DoubleTree to cancel A Voice For Men's conference. They also plan to hold a peaceful march several weeks before the conference.

Kelly Jackson, who is studying culture and gender at Wayne State University in Detroit, initially posted the petition. As of Thursday, it had more than 1,000 signatures.

"As far as we're concerned, it's exactly like hosting any hate group," Jackson told The Huffington Post. "Detroit has already been brought down to its knees by bankruptcy and corruption and hatred, so for the DoubleTree to host a hate group, it's like they're willing to bring Detroit all the way face-down in the mud."

(...) MRA groups and their followers have been condemned for anti-woman rhetoric and actions, and the movement has drawn special ire from critics for activism against rape victims. Members of a Reddit board dedicated to men's rights particpated in spamming a college's anonymous sexual assault reporting service, and another men's rights group launched a poster campaign attacking women who submit false rape reports. (False reporting does occur, but is relatively rare, while an estimated 60 percent of sexual assaults go unreported, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network).

(...) In the wake of the Rodger shooting, public conversation has turned to the fear of violence women experience daily. People have shared stories of sexism and misogyny on social media using the hashtag #YesAllWomen, based on the idea that while not all men are misogynists, all women experience the effects of misogyny.

(...) Jackson was not surprised by Elam's assertion. "You're in a space right now where women are finally getting the rights that we deserve, that we should have had all along, and the minute that happens there's going to be a huge pushback," she said.

Elam said A Voice for Men has sold about 70 percent of available tickets for the conference and expects a diverse crowd. The protest is planned for 10 a.m. on June 7, about three weeks before the conference, and opponents will march a short distance from Grand Circus Park in downtown Detroit to the hotel.

Hier findet man den vollständigen Artikel. Im wesentlichen lässt er sich auf die Aussage reduzieren, dass die Anliegen der Männerrechtler nicht zählen, weil es sich dabei ohenhin nur um eine Fassade für gemeingefährlichen, mörderischen Frauenhass handelt. "Belegt" wird dies, exakt wie vorhergesagt, unter anderem mit dem Amoklauf von Elliot Rodger.

Das wirklich Faszinierende an diesem Artikel ist der immense Hass und die Verachtung gegenüber Männern und ihre Anliegen, der darin zum Ausdruck kommt, während dieser Hass zugleich auf die Männer projiziert wird, denen man Hass auf Frauen unterstellt. Ich kann wirklich keinem Mann einen Vorwurf machen, der angesichts dieser perfiden Aggression irgendwann verzweifelt und aus dem Fenster springt.