From the British Telegraph newspaper website, 29/12/14.
Will 2015 be the year of meninism?
It started as a Twitter joke, but could meninism become a force for men's rights and positive masculinity, asks Martin Daubney
Could 2015 be the year when downtrodden men finally grow a pair, rise up against the tyranny of modern feminism and cry, “I’m a meninist – and I demand equality!”
It’s enough to get any self-righteous feminist choking on their quinoa and checking to make sure it isn’t April 1st – except that the meninist movement is actually happening in the real world.
Under the Twitter hashtag #MeninstTwitter, an online sexual revolution is gathering steam – and it’s ruffling more feathers than Bernard Matthews at the Vegetarian Society’s Xmas bash.
Oddest of all, nobody can work out whether it could possibly the beginnings of serious men’s movement or just another flash-in-the-pan parody of the perceived absurdities of online feminism.
What’s clear is that meninism isn’t new: it started as a starchy, intellectual movement over a year ago on feminist.com under the clarion call of “Meninist – equality for all”.
Related Articles
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If masculinity needs to be revolutionised, so does feminism 10 Dec 2014
Was 2014 the year political correctness went stark raving mad? 16 Dec 2014
Men hoping it might be a backlash against over-zealous, ram-it-down-your-throat third-wave feminists were bitterly disappointed.
With its founding manifesto, “We are all opposed to all forms of misogynist behaviour and sexist attitudes; we support all women,” meninism was a straight-up, men’s wing of feminism; a neutered sheep in wolf’s clothing.
Tiresomely, these early meninists once again bemoaned “the patriarchy” – i.e. men – for being responsible for just about every human problem, be it war, colonialism, racism, homophobia and capitalism.
If these meninists were meant to be a feminists with balls, they were way too feminised to achieve traction outside of the backwaters of the feminist lecture circuit.
But it did make them ripe for parody in the same way the New Man was savaged by lad culture in the 1990s.
Meninism would have been dead in the water were it not for Twitter user Ti Balogun who created the hashtag #MeninistTwitter as a form of "satire” against “the way feminists express themselves, which is a turn-off".
Some tweets jab fun at double standards, such as “Why can't men ever get in the club free?” and “why cant she open the door for me?” while a favourite topic – “size doesn’t matter” – mocks the female obsession with tall men. “My under-six-foot brother needs love just as much as your fat friend”.
Others feature pictures of an overweight man next to a ripped beefcake, with the message “stop objectifying men – real men have curves”, while another geeky man holds a placard that reads “I need meninism because the movie Magic Mike promotes an unrealistic view of how men’s bodies should look”.
This is what a meninist looks like (Photo: Twitter)
So far, so light-hearted. But more recently, the movement has heated up by piggybacking serious hashtags such as #WomenAgainstFeminism and #YesAllMen.
In the last month, a very modern gender war has erupted, as the movement became a runaway train, its deliberately antagonistic frat house humour throwing napalm on the flames of feminist critics' discontent.
Exhibit A is the most popular meninst Twitter account, @MeninistTweet with 495,000 followers. A typical stab at humour might read, “You guys wanna hear a joke? Feminism”. By mocking height-obsessed women who are overweight, the feed cruelly exposes the vanities of modern American women.
As a consequence, meninism has enraged and confused critics in equal measure. Comments range from “It’s impossible to tell who is serious on the hashtag” to “If you identify as a #meninist please contact me for a dictionary so you can look up the definition of feminism. Stop embarrassing yourself.”
Certainly, some meninists do themselves no favours whatsoever when they say pushing a women downstairs is a viable “Plan C” for birth control which draws comments like “This would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous”.
Advocating violence against women is an open goal for critics to describe meninism as “crappy” or “dumb” and “misogynistic” and “hatefully anti-woman”.
But, sadly, every movement has its swivel-eyed loons, and if you were to dismiss an entire “thing” on the basis of the outrageous comments of a few fringe lunatics, feminism would be redundant, too.
Of course, we’re not allowed to do that, as it would be sexist. But if we can’t dismiss all feminism on the basis of the hateful comments spouted by a few, it seems a bit rich to discount meninism on the basis of a few bad-taste jokes.
The bigger question is: is the meninist movement serious – or is it just a joke? Or is it a mixture of both? After all, when the BBC first reported on it last year they said it started by men sharing jokes “to express the difficulties of being a man in the 21st century”.
So could this online meninist movement get a toehold and contribute more to men’s rights than a game of beer pong ever did?
Those of us who pray for a resurgence in positive masculinity certainly hope so. Strip away the jock-strap humour and some meninists are talking about the issues that matter: male suicide, violence against men, disproportionate male prison sentences for the same crime, fathers' rights and the perceived injustices of divorce courts. Where it goes from here is key, for to survive it must be pro-man and not be dismissed as anti-woman.
Will 2015 be the year when the worm finally turns? Or is meninism just “banter?”
Why not do both? Why can’t we address the serious needs of modern men while having a laugh? What’s wrong with change through chortles?
After all, by retaining our sense of humour and making social change fun, we could achieve something feminism never even considered.
Predictably, the backlash has already begun in feminine-primary media --
http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/12/men-of-m...book_nymag
Will 2015 be the year of meninism?
It started as a Twitter joke, but could meninism become a force for men's rights and positive masculinity, asks Martin Daubney
Could 2015 be the year when downtrodden men finally grow a pair, rise up against the tyranny of modern feminism and cry, “I’m a meninist – and I demand equality!”
It’s enough to get any self-righteous feminist choking on their quinoa and checking to make sure it isn’t April 1st – except that the meninist movement is actually happening in the real world.
Under the Twitter hashtag #MeninstTwitter, an online sexual revolution is gathering steam – and it’s ruffling more feathers than Bernard Matthews at the Vegetarian Society’s Xmas bash.
Oddest of all, nobody can work out whether it could possibly the beginnings of serious men’s movement or just another flash-in-the-pan parody of the perceived absurdities of online feminism.
What’s clear is that meninism isn’t new: it started as a starchy, intellectual movement over a year ago on feminist.com under the clarion call of “Meninist – equality for all”.
Related Articles
'All women should be banned from barber shops' 26 Nov 2014
'Lads' have become the most hated people in Britain 20 Nov 2014
If masculinity needs to be revolutionised, so does feminism 10 Dec 2014
Was 2014 the year political correctness went stark raving mad? 16 Dec 2014
Men hoping it might be a backlash against over-zealous, ram-it-down-your-throat third-wave feminists were bitterly disappointed.
With its founding manifesto, “We are all opposed to all forms of misogynist behaviour and sexist attitudes; we support all women,” meninism was a straight-up, men’s wing of feminism; a neutered sheep in wolf’s clothing.
Tiresomely, these early meninists once again bemoaned “the patriarchy” – i.e. men – for being responsible for just about every human problem, be it war, colonialism, racism, homophobia and capitalism.
If these meninists were meant to be a feminists with balls, they were way too feminised to achieve traction outside of the backwaters of the feminist lecture circuit.
But it did make them ripe for parody in the same way the New Man was savaged by lad culture in the 1990s.
Meninism would have been dead in the water were it not for Twitter user Ti Balogun who created the hashtag #MeninistTwitter as a form of "satire” against “the way feminists express themselves, which is a turn-off".
Some tweets jab fun at double standards, such as “Why can't men ever get in the club free?” and “why cant she open the door for me?” while a favourite topic – “size doesn’t matter” – mocks the female obsession with tall men. “My under-six-foot brother needs love just as much as your fat friend”.
Others feature pictures of an overweight man next to a ripped beefcake, with the message “stop objectifying men – real men have curves”, while another geeky man holds a placard that reads “I need meninism because the movie Magic Mike promotes an unrealistic view of how men’s bodies should look”.
This is what a meninist looks like (Photo: Twitter)
So far, so light-hearted. But more recently, the movement has heated up by piggybacking serious hashtags such as #WomenAgainstFeminism and #YesAllMen.
In the last month, a very modern gender war has erupted, as the movement became a runaway train, its deliberately antagonistic frat house humour throwing napalm on the flames of feminist critics' discontent.
Exhibit A is the most popular meninst Twitter account, @MeninistTweet with 495,000 followers. A typical stab at humour might read, “You guys wanna hear a joke? Feminism”. By mocking height-obsessed women who are overweight, the feed cruelly exposes the vanities of modern American women.
As a consequence, meninism has enraged and confused critics in equal measure. Comments range from “It’s impossible to tell who is serious on the hashtag” to “If you identify as a #meninist please contact me for a dictionary so you can look up the definition of feminism. Stop embarrassing yourself.”
Certainly, some meninists do themselves no favours whatsoever when they say pushing a women downstairs is a viable “Plan C” for birth control which draws comments like “This would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous”.
Advocating violence against women is an open goal for critics to describe meninism as “crappy” or “dumb” and “misogynistic” and “hatefully anti-woman”.
But, sadly, every movement has its swivel-eyed loons, and if you were to dismiss an entire “thing” on the basis of the outrageous comments of a few fringe lunatics, feminism would be redundant, too.
Of course, we’re not allowed to do that, as it would be sexist. But if we can’t dismiss all feminism on the basis of the hateful comments spouted by a few, it seems a bit rich to discount meninism on the basis of a few bad-taste jokes.
The bigger question is: is the meninist movement serious – or is it just a joke? Or is it a mixture of both? After all, when the BBC first reported on it last year they said it started by men sharing jokes “to express the difficulties of being a man in the 21st century”.
So could this online meninist movement get a toehold and contribute more to men’s rights than a game of beer pong ever did?
Those of us who pray for a resurgence in positive masculinity certainly hope so. Strip away the jock-strap humour and some meninists are talking about the issues that matter: male suicide, violence against men, disproportionate male prison sentences for the same crime, fathers' rights and the perceived injustices of divorce courts. Where it goes from here is key, for to survive it must be pro-man and not be dismissed as anti-woman.
Will 2015 be the year when the worm finally turns? Or is meninism just “banter?”
Why not do both? Why can’t we address the serious needs of modern men while having a laugh? What’s wrong with change through chortles?
After all, by retaining our sense of humour and making social change fun, we could achieve something feminism never even considered.
Predictably, the backlash has already begun in feminine-primary media --
http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/12/men-of-m...book_nymag
![[Image: im-out-of-here-eccbc87e4b5ce2fe28308fd9f2a7baf3-348.gif]](http://www.gifsforum.com/images/gif/i%27m%20out%20of%20here/grand/im-out-of-here-eccbc87e4b5ce2fe28308fd9f2a7baf3-348.gif)
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