Why the new Men’s rights movement fails.

April 21, 2014 by Rachel Johnson 11 Comments

The men’s rights movement is nothing new. Once women formed the women’s suffrage movement, men began to rally against them. When the two movements first formed, women were not allowed to vote, own property, have custody of their children, work in any significant jobs, or be educated equally to men.

The counter development of the men’s rights movement was to force women to leave their forward thinking, and force them back into the home, and give men all the power over them. Suddenly, men felt like the victims, because they could no longer force their wives to cook, have sex, take care of the home and be silent and property.

Since then society has come a long way, and while it would be true to say that some things have changed for the worse, for men, it would never be true to say that men have always been oppressed.

There is this new movement of men saying that women have always been in control, and it is catching fire. It’s as if we can ignore the entirety of history, just to say such a thing, that there is not only no evidence of, but even worse, there is all the evidence against.

History does not show us how men were just used for hard labor, and that women were doing it. What was really happening since the age of agriculture, was the possession of women. Even historical texts and religious documents show that women were possessions and that while they were forced to stay in the home and have children, men were free to have affairs, boy lovers, many wives, abuse their slaves, and held all possession of property and children. Women weren’t allowed a say in the public, or in the home. Women were to be docile and quiet and produce offspring.

 

Men had the right to rise in their position, not all men worked tedious jobs. Many men were rulers, and governors, and business men. They also owned large amounts of land, and women often worked the gardens and even helped in the fields. Somehow this is passed over by men and their new rights movement. It s also passed over that many women died in child birth because they were only 14, 15 years old when they were married. They also suffered beatings, and infections, and adultery by the men.

I am not sure which part of this suggests that men suffered more than women, especially when a man could take his wife to the temple and accuse her, and she could be stoned or thrown in the river. Men, on the other hand, had to be caught with the wife of another man before they were punished.

 

Men invented hard labor for which other men were employed to work, because women were not allowed. Men made the rules of society that were applied to men and women. Men made the laws that punish people with prison sentences, and men deemed women less intelligent, weaker, and possessions of men. It was not until the 1980’s that the United states started making it illegal for men to beat women.

The reality of history is that women didn’t make our social structure, they weren’t even actually a thought in the conception of it. In the constitution it states “all men were created equal.” The reason that they used the word men, was to exclude slaves and women. Women have even been the majority of slaves in history. Women have been the most oppressed, most abused, most neglected, most harmed, undervalued, under paid, hardest working people on this planet. Just ask any woman with several kids and a home to care for, how hard it can be to juggle all of the things it takes to get through life.

That is not to say that men have had it easy. There are always men willing to take advantage of other men, to work them hard and to use them. There are women willing to manipulate the system ad get everything they can from men, but the reality is not that men have always been the victims. Men, if they have been victims, are mostly victims of other men.

 

The men’s rights movement ignores the reality of history and the suffering that women have done for Millenia. It lies about who has had it the hardest, not just during one era of time, but the entirety of humanity. It lies about the fact that women are valued for their hymen, constantly ridiculed about their bodies, harmed because of their flesh, and sexually abused because of their sex organs.

It makes no sense to me to say that men are the victims of a history that they created, and that they had the entire say over. If men are true victims, it is victims of their own system, and their lacking to see women as capable equals.