Masculinity, or manhood, as it is most commonly understood in Western culture, is determined by a set of criteria placed always just out of reach of the striving man. The result is not only constant attempts at proving one’s manhood, but the perpetual failure to succeed in all realms: financial, physical, sexual. Dr. Nerdlove (not an actual doctor), unpacks many of the shortfalls of the so-called “men’s rights movement” which seeks not to actually support or love men, but to further patriarchal hate and neoliberal conquest of women. As noted in the article, there reasons for men to be angered by inequity in the legal system for example, which prioritizes mothers over fathers in divorce proceedings, and invisiblizes male survivors of sexual and domestic abuse. But this is not the goal of the MRM. Feminism on the other hand, actually does have the capacity to build gender equity, nurturing relationships and communities in which people across the gender spectrum are loved and cared for. It is not women who have failed men. Masculinity in the singular, has failed men.
– Brett Goldberg
Read the article via Ask Dr. Nerdlove.
