Men's Rights

(without any idea of how I got there) I recently read about Men's Rights and some of the issues for which men fight. I will be honest, as a woman I was shocked and then somewhat amused and slightly annoyed that some men felt the need to define their rights, when "rights"-particularly in the US, were written for men and then women and other minorities had to step up and define and claim those rights. But after I opened my mind to these issues I found that some are very interesting and relevant. So I wanted to post to see what other people think. Here are some of the issues, in no particular order. Men, feel free to correct me if I state something the wrong way or to add something to the list:

1) Men have responsibility to children they father without a choice in the matter of abortion
2) Men make the same amount of money for physical labor as a woman who cannot perform the same physical tasks
3) Men are still expected to "court" women and pay for items on dates, etc
4)Men are required to register for the draft while women are not
5)Men often lose custody of children in divorce and rarely receive child support when they do win custody
6)Violence against men committed by women isnt taken seriously (rape, spousal abuse)
7) Men dont have the creative freedom in their dress codes that women do
8)Men often do not get paid paternity leave
9) The preference of women and children over men in emergency situations
10) Men receive harsher punishments for crime

All of these issues are based on trending data. There are also some issues about men dying sooner than women, girls performing better than boys in school, more money and attention being given to breast cancer research than prostate cancer research.......

Tags: civil rights, equality, human rights, inequality, men, sexism, social issues, women's rights

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Matt on June 30, 2009 at 8:17am: "she could either not inform the guy and let him off the hook (is there a violation of right?)"

Yes, I think that would be a violation of the man's right to know his child, or at least to know that he has a child.

"she could ask if he want to be a part of this (if he say yes, then it is okay, if he say no, could he give up his parental right and give the woman the chance to get an abortion knowing that he would be a deadbeat dad.)"

This I am fine with. I think the male must be informed of the pregnancy in enough time to make a decision about whether or not he wants to take care of a child, and if they both do then great, if not then no baby or baby without the man's help but with previous knowledge that the woman would not be getting any help.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lily on July 22, 2009 at 8:59pm: i agree, give the man time to decide to opt out, but make sure that the woman can still have the abortion after she finds out that the man isn't going to help. he can't just opt out the day before the baby is born because he's changing the circumstances under which the mother decided to keep the child. but i also agree that the man should not be required to pay child support no matter the circumstances.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by XOX on July 22, 2009 at 9:06pm: Agreed. And I assumed you are talking about non violent men.

In the real world, when men want to opt out, he could choose the violent way to bring on miscarriage if he don't want to be responsible for the resulting child. Pregnant women are at a much higher risk for intimate partners abuse (Abuse statistics varies in countries. Read here. Search "pregnant women" ="abuse" to find statistics in other places ). That is why women have to make the judgement call of telling or not telling the men who get them pregnant.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Fair Phantom on June 29, 2009 at 7:32pm: My point was there isn't really a way for a man to have a say over abortion or keeping a baby. One person's rights can't be put above... etc etc. I'm aware in a situation like a pregnancy, the power is fully on the side of the woman.

My other point was the only way to avoid men having no say over a pregnancy, is to avoid the pregnancy.

I wasn't trying to ignore the argument there; I just tend to attack debates with humor and my point is often lost.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Matt on June 30, 2009 at 8:14am: You're still missing the point... I think. The question isn't whether or not the man has any say over an abortion. The question is: should the man be forced to pay child support for the baby that he did not want (and if abortion was up to him, he would have had the abortion) just because the mother decided that she did not want to get an abortion when if the mother wants out of responsibility for the baby she can choose to get an abortion regardless of if the man wants the baby?

Does that make sense?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Pumpkin Matt on July 8, 2009 at 8:30am: If he hates the idea of paying child support so much, why did he wait until then to try and take charge of the situation?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Matt on July 9, 2009 at 6:49pm: What? I'm seriously confused as to what you're asking, I'm not just being an ass.

Are you saying that if the man is so against the idea of paying child support, why did he have sex?
If so, having sex is not agreeing to raise a child, it's agreeing to have sex.

Are you saying that if the man is so against the idea of paying child support, why didn't he use contraception?
If so, contraception doesn't always work.

Are you saying that if the man is so against the idea of paying child support, why did he wait until the baby was born before saying so?
If so... that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that if the man knows in time for an abortion to take place, he should be able to say "no, I don't want the baby" and then have nothing to do with it. If the man is not informed before then that the woman is pregnant, well, that's the woman's fault for not giving him the information in the time to make the decision.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ruby Siouxsie on June 29, 2009 at 9:56pm: I used the word pen0rs.
and squish.

Take it with a grain of salt--
or sperm.
=D; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Matt on June 30, 2009 at 8:54am: Which is why I didn't continue. I have a habit of reading things until I see something that I disagree with and then starting a reply. Not a great habit, but it helps me to post everything that I wanted to.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Caleb on June 29, 2009 at 11:45am: 1) Men have responsibility to children they father without a choice in the matter of abortion
4)Men are required to register for the draft while women are not
5)Men often lose custody of children in divorce and rarely receive child support when they do win custody
6)Violence against men committed by women isn't taken seriously (rape, spousal abuse)
7) Men don't have the creative freedom in their dress codes that women do

There you have it.
All of the statements which have a valid point...in my opinion.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Matt on June 29, 2009 at 11:56am: Haha, 7 but not 9. You're right, dress code is a much more pressing matter than women being pushed into the emergency room before men because women have vaginas and men have penises.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by jessica r on June 29, 2009 at 1:52pm: I thought I would post this in response to #7. I saw this a few months ago and about fell out of my chair.
http://www.e-mancipate.net/
Everyone I've showed this to thought it was ridiculous, so I can see men's feelings being hurt over something like this.

I have a hard tie imagining what else men would like to wear that they cant, although I remember being in highschool with a student who wanted to wear kilts and the school board came unglued over that.; ▶ Reply to This