Masculism

Masculism is a nascent movement and ideology that considers the sexes complementary (Warren Farrell) and interdependent by necessity; masculists generally believe that the expression of differentiated sex roles is natural and should be exempt from government interference. This contrasts with feminist ideology.

While feminists consider the sexes as having the same capacities in virtually every respect and denounce differentiated sex roles as an oppressive artificial construct, masculists believe, to the contrary, that profound sex differences are inherent in human nature, and that feminists who have attempted to negate these differences by legislation and social engineering are dragging civilization through a fallacious experiment. Masculism blames this experiment for high divorce rates, alienation of the sexes, disintegrating communities, fatherless children, high school dropout, drug addiction, communism, teenage pregnancy, suicide, violent crime, and overfilled prisons.

Masculists further state that sexual equality laws (beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1964) have resulted in making feminist ideology mainstream--that such laws serve primarily women and have created significant unconstitutional discrimination against men. While feminism believes in the existence of an all-powerful patriarchy, masculists consider patriarchy merely a myth. While accusing feminism of characterizing women as powerless victims of patriarchal oppression, masculism sees this as a device used to justify the vilification of men and the curtailing of men's rights. Masculism believes that feminism has achieved a covert matriarchy by means of such devices.

Masculists cite many examples of anti-male discrimination, including legislation, selective enforcement, and neglected civil rights: child custody strongly favoring mothers, men incarcerated for inability to pay unrealistic support payments, children aborted or given up for adoption without fathers' consent, men risking their lives in military service but receiving no special honor for doing so, men charged in domestic violence cases even when victims, men charged in rape and sexual harassment cases with no evidence beyond the plaintiff's claim, where the mere accusation frequently destroys a man's life, research and free speech repressed unless pro-feminist, men fired from their jobs for dissenting with feminist idealogy in the workplace, relative lack of funding for men's health, lack of advocacy for men's rights, entitlement programs for women only, special government ministries for women's affairs with no corresponding ministries for men's affairs, etc. Masculists also complain that feminist ideology is taught as "Men's Studies" in universities. (We need citations for many of these--NO PROBLEM.)

The greatest area of disagreement among masculists has to do with religious proscriptions for sex roles. This is largely a matter of degree, with most masculists acknowledging men's general leadership role and greater contributions to society. The term "masculism" (or "masculinism" or "virism") may be used interchangeably with "men's rights movement", but conservatives in the men's rights movement often reserve the term "masculism" for the liberal branch of the movement (as epitomized by author Warren Farrell). Liberal masculists take the position that feminist aspirations to gender equality should be taken at face value, and men made equal to women in those areas where women are overprivileged. Conservatives prefer to return to a traditional division of labor between the sexes.

Masculism envisions a greater role for men in both the family and society at large. Most masculists note that father custody is assigned less often than mother custody, and argue that this should be reversed, citing lower incidence for all child development risk factors in single-father households compared to single-mother households. They also believe that most family breakups are initiated by women, that this is exacerbated by women's expectation of full custody, and that the expectation of father custody would therefore reduce the divorce rate. One of their goals is to overturn the covert matriarchy and elect masculist politicians, whom they would consider more altruistically motivated. Most masculists support opportunity for women.

The best-known authors on masculism are perhaps Warren Farrell and Fred Reed in the United States, Neil Lyndon and David Thomas in Great Britain, and Matthias Matussek and Arne Hoffmann in Germany.

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The following is another version of the article. --LMS

Masculism is the ideology according to which men have intrinsic rights that are often denied them in contemporary Western culture -- indeed, according to this view, society does not usually recognize that men, as men, even have rights. Feminists in western countries have, over about 200 years (since Wollstonecraft), established as a given the thesis that society is male-dominated and oppresses women. This is the meta-issue that Men's Rights activists raise, as a logical (but not necessarily practical) precondition to the raising of various specific issues.

Men's Rights proponents consider that Feminists have argued for "equality" in respect of self-selected issues only, -- using ad hoc (and seldom explicit) definitions of "equality" that they developed themselves, rather than (for example) calling a conference of all interested parties for the purpose of clarifying the issues. It is argued that Feminists have not sought gender equality on issues such as child custody, the decision to abort one's unborn child, compulsory military service, unsegregated professional sports, law enforcement relating to domestic violence, funding for men's and women's groups, Men's Studies vs Women's Studies, ministries of Men's Affairs to complement ministries of Women's Affairs, and health research funding.

Many Men's Rights activists also criticise Feminism for relying on a restricted view of political power, whereby a count of the relative numbers of men and women in important decision-making positions suffices to determine whether men or women are the more powerful. Men's Rights proponents point out that there are many other sorts of political power - e.g. control over the information and stereotypes that decision-makers rely on as the basis of their decisions. This information and these stereotypes, in the West, are largely under the control of Hollywood, the mass media, the education sector, and the bureaucracies - which are all strongly influenced by Feminist ideology, if not actually female-dominated.

The term "Masculism" (aka "Masculinism" or "Virism") may be used interchangeably with "Men's Rights", but conservatives in the Men's Rights scene often reserve the term "Masculism" for the liberal branch of the Men's Rights movement (as epitomised by ex-Feminist author Warren Farrell). Liberal Masculists (such as Farrell or Rod van Mechelen) take the position that Feminist aspirations to gender equality should be taken at face value, and men made equal to women in those areas where women are over-privileged. Conservatives (such as Richard Doyle, and religious individuals and organisations such as the Promise Keepers) would prefer to return to a traditional division of labour between the sexes. A third way is espoused in Peter Zohrab's book "Sex, Lies & Feminism", which demands that Society either abolish female privilege or revert to a traditional division of labour between the sexes, as a fall-back position.

The response of Feminists to the Men's Rights movement has not generally been to respond to Men's Rights at the ideological level. Rather, they have either ignored this movement, publicised new issues (e.g. eating disorders) where women might plausibly be shown to be disadvantaged, and/or tried to deny Men's Rights activists access to the media and publishers and influence in education systems and bureaucracies.

Some Men's and Fathers' Rights proponents consider that the sexes are complementary and interdependent by necessity, but this is not a central thesis of Masculism per se. While Feminists denounce differentiated sex roles as an oppressive artificial construct, many Men's and Fathers' Rights proponents believe that profound sex differences are inherent in human nature, and that Feminist social engineering has resulted in high divorce rates, alienation of the sexes, disintegrating communities, fatherless children, high school dropout, drug addiction, communism, teenage pregnancy, suicide, violent crime, and overfilled prisons.

/Talk