Men’s Rights: Balancing the Gender Equation

By Carla Rhodes

Women’s rights is a trending topic all around the modern world, but only focusing on one gender isn’t true gender equality. 

The Men’s Rights Movement is a global organization that believes in promoting and bringing awareness to the hidden struggles of being born a man. Growing up, we are led to believe that men have all the privileges and women have to work twice as hard to achieve praise. Well, the grass isn’t greener on the other side. 

Court biasness of men results in harsher prison sentences, paternity fraud, expectation to carry financial burdens, they are most likely to lose children in custody battles, and workplace deaths are overwhelmingly men. Men are just as likely to be abused, yet the lack of resources for male victims are unacceptable. There are two hundred domestic violence shelters for women in the US and only one for men. They deserve care and compassion too, yet society constantly tells them that their rights don’t matter. 

Society’s perception of masculinity can be extremely toxic for everyone. Men are not supposed to show emotions like crying, men are not supposed to be domestically abused, and men are supposed to be the ones in the military and other “tough” jobs. Who makes the rules on what men and women are supposed to do? Us! We are the society. If we want change, we must demand it. We must all come together, male or female, because we are all human.

Gender equality includes both genders. If one group is oppressed, we all suffer the consequences. We can’t make it a competition and say, “men are roughly 78% of all suicides in the world, but women attempt more.” We can’t downgrade someone based on their gender and how they appear. 

Cassir Jayne, proud feminist did a documentary on Men’s Rights, focusing on their members and leaders. She confesses, “I wasn’t listening, I was anticipating. I was waiting to hear a sentence or even just a couple of words that proved I had found the misogynist.” After differentiating what she had been told of the organization from what they were truly about, she concludes, “when you start humanizing your enemy, you in turn may be dehumanized by your community.” She stood up for what she believed in and was shunned and ridiculed. 

We can all be the bigger person. For example, in case of war, there may be a draft for men between the ages 18-26. If we believe in making the world truly equal and fair for all, we must step up and accept women to also be included in these drafts. We cannot wish to promote equality when it is in only things we choose, we have to choose it all or nothing.  

Neither gender is perfect, but they each deserve for us to stand up for solutions and acknowledge that yes, we may look different, but we are all connected with our humanity. We all have done something that helped shape this world, and the only way to become equal is to stand together, not rival with each other or say the other group is full of hate and they wish to set back our achievements. 

It is up to us to fight back for our rights, and each voice — no matter how small — will merge into one that will demand attention. We will not be denied by invisible rules we have created ourselves. So stand up and fight for your rights!

 

Bibliography:

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/2016/04/07/gender-inequality-in-working-world-comes-with-big-price-tag-for-dallas/

Cowan, Jill. “Gender Inequality in Working World Comes with Big Price Tag for Dallas.” Dallas News, The Dallas Morning News, 27 Aug. 2019, www.dallasnews.com/business/2016/04/07/gender-inequality-in-working-world-comes-with-big-price-tag-for-dallas/.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WMuzhQXJoY

TEDX Talks. “MEETING THE ENEMY A feminist comes to terms with the Men’s Rights movement | Cassie Jaye | TEDxMarin” Youtube, October 18, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WMuzhQXJoY

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