"Ich dachte, ich wäre eine Feministin – bevor ich einen Männerrechtler zu daten begann"

I didn’t know what a men’s rights activist was until I fell in love with one. He didn’t know I was a feminist until our First Big Argument. Every couple went through one, but I doubt any of them had one based on something as petty as ours.

My boyfriend is a cis white male of European descent. He is 6’7, barely fits through a doorframe, listens to indie music and enjoys video games more than puppies. I grew up in a third world country and am currently studying overseas, where I met him through a mutual. I am a feminist because in my country, patriarchy is rampant, child brides are aplenty, and street harassment is commonplace. My boyfriend is an MRA because after objectively comparing the issues of both genders in a first-world context, he finds that the male activists need more support in fighting for their issues.

When I saw him scrolling through Reddit’s infamous r/mensrights for the first time, he had to explain to me what an MRA was. He didn’t — and never has — labeled himself as an MRA (but I did). He is a self-proclaimed gender egalitarian, and believes in the equality of both sexes. He often reiterates that feminism is the best thing since sliced bread, but developing countries are in need of it much more than his own and female oppression is no longer something to be dealt with in many nations.

Before I met him, I was part of the Tumblr feminists. I was a hardcore, misogynist-hating feminist who swallows whatever text post pops up on my dashboard. I questioned nothing. A woman earned 77 cents to every dollar a man makes? How dare they! Women don’t have the rights to their own bodies? Those cishet males at it again! Women are being victim blamed? Motherfucking shitlords!

I believed everything I read because Tumblr feminists are the most passionate people out there. And trust me, it’s hard refuting a claim made when it’s in a funny text post on my dashboard. I thought everything there were cold-hard facts. (Fun fact: they’re not.) So many of the statistics used by feminists are either outdated, warped, or completely bazoink.

Hier geht es weiter mit dem Beitrag von Jasmine Subrata, der die Frage aufwirft: Kommt die Dauer-Agitation gegen Männerrechtler vielleicht spätestens dann zum Stillstand, wenn es so viele von uns gibt, dass zahllose Leute aus eigener Erfahrung merken, dass wir entgegen sämtlicher Propaganda nicht aus den Tiefen der Hölle entstiegen sind, sondern sehr berechtigte und wichtige Anliegen haben?