Is The Men’s Rights Movement Really About Family Rights?

A movement toward something is just as much a movement away from something. And the reverse would also apply. The topic of Men’s Rights is one that most of our readers have probably bumped into while browsing related topics or discovered in an abrupt and painful way, feeling as many of you do, that not only men’s human rights, but by extension the human rights of coming generations are being violated.

I checked out IthacaMensRights.blogspot.com and landed on this post offering an interesting take on the problems with a Feminism that has lost its way.

It’s an interesting question. Surely we can look at some pretty glaring numbers and see that overwhelmingly high rates of divorce initiated by women, overwhelmingly high numbers of women receiving primary custody of their children along with monetary support calculated and determined by questionable methods, high rates of failure of children in the academic system, child abuse, medication of children, and many other social ills seem to coincide with the systematic criminalization and taxation upon men.

Many of the Men’s Rights blogs on the internet seem to point to evidence that not only are men doing badly these days in our culture, but that children are doing badly… families are doing badly.

And this seems to be mirrored in America’s culture of divorce. To be blunt, the women are looking out for themselves and jumping ship, and the men are saying, but in order for this to float we all have to be on board with all of our resources going toward the success of our family.  The men seem to understand that it takes an entire family and all its resources to move the family forward. If one member leaves, even if she takes the children, the unit is fractured.

This is of course not to suggest that men don’t themselves break up marriages. But people recognized as Men’s Rights writers and thinkers such as Warren Farrell seem to be trying to call attention that not only are women initiating the legal dissolution of a vast majority of marriages in America, they seem to be doing so with the unassuming blessings of our legal system, our political system, and even our populace.  It seems as though most people in America who are not presently fighting to remain a part of their child’s life don’t realize that the deck is stacked. Most don’t realize in fact that,  all around them are factors that are destroying families by devaluing men and fathers.

Dr. Farrell, one of the great contemporary writers on the subject of Gender Relations, offers compelling reading not only because he is so grounded in research and documentation, not only because he makes his own discoveries and observations so plain for us to see, but perhaps because of his past. Dr. Farrell took an active role in supporting the Women’s Movement, and his later realization that in an effort to support Women, Men and families suffered.

The blogs mentioned and linked to on this page are strong examples among many who seem to be pointing out that a kind of “mistaken feminism” often misplaces it’s target (men in general) and is misjudging women to be its only victims. Yes, the Men’s Movement seems to be concerned with the family than simply the rights of Men. The men’s rights blogs I have found seem much less interested in blaming someone and more interested in pointing out that the whole ship is sinking and that if it does, we’re all going to go down with it.

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