Disturbing article of the day...

'"Men's Rights Groups" Have Become Surprisingly Effective'

While browsing one of my fav websites- www.doublex.com - I came across this article on men's rights groups and their activism. The article described how men's rights groups such as "RADAR" have been successful recently in gaining attention in congress and courts etc for men's rights regarding custody rights, rights in divorce and recognition of domestic violence against men by women.

Most of these groups are completely anti-feminist, and openly oppose any gains made by feminists. They also argue that half of all domestic violence is committed by females against males (even though stats show that the figure is around 5-10% female violence against males).

The article brought to mind a book I read for my thesis, Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men? by James Sterba and Warren Farrell. In this 'enlightening' book, Farrell makes a long winded argument on how rape is charged unfairly against men, because women are not held accountable for (in short) 'making men believe they wanted to have sex with them.' Farrell argues that such things as kissing, going on a date w/, saying encouraging things (about how much they like the guy etc) all make men think that the girl wants to have sex, therefore she should be held accountable if the guy (in short) 'can't help himself.' Because apparently, according to Farrell, if the woman gives that much encouragement she is saying 'yes' even if she says 'no' to having sex. I'm sorry, I don't know about you, but at this point I was cussing and fuming- in the middle of the library- as to who the h this Farrell guy thought he was!!??! It still pisses me off to think that anyone could think such things.

I guess that some men's behaviour is so bad that to accept all of the responsibility themselves would be too much to handle (thus they push responsibility on the woman). Even when I try to get myself to see the other side of the picture, it is difficult when it comes to a subject like rape. However, I do acknowledge that men are raped also- which is an equally tragic occurrence. But for Farrell to go on and on as to why rape is the female's fault just blows my mind. And represents a similar argument to the men's rights groups.

On parental custody, however, I would argue that it should not necessarily be the mother who gets priority in custody all the time. I feel as long as the father has been a provider, and a good father to the children and has not shown any abusive tendencies in the past, that he should be entitled to equal time with his children as the mother does.

Back to men's rights groups- the article also talked about men that went on shooting rampages against women because they 'had been rejected by so many desirable women in the past.' And apparently on one 'Angry Harry's blog, he canonized these killers saying that basically it should be a warning to all women. WTF???!!!! So you shouldn't reject a guy because he may go kill a bunch of people, and if he does, it was your fault (women) because you rejected him? If that is not the most insane thing I've ever heard, I don't know what is. I just have an overall feeling about men's rights groups that they don't want women any where near to an equal status with men, so they will try any silly argument to make themselves seem like the victims. Playing devil's advocate- I'm sure some women's rights activists have done this too but not to this ridiculous extent.

To all men's rights groups out there- we will never be in a place again where women accept complacency. Please leave the 1950's behind and enter the modern era.

Circle of Light, An Autobiography by Kiranjit Ahluwalia

The first book I read after finishing my thesis was one I borrowed from my landlord called Circle of Light- the autobiography of Kiranjit Ahluwalia. After writing my thesis on domestic violence in Afghanistan, this was a great follow-up to the subject- this one dealing with domestic violence within the Indian culture (of Kiranjit, an Indian woman living in the UK).

Kiran describes the story of her life- how she met her husband and moved with him to the UK from India. From the very first night of their marriage he was abusive towards her and she felt she had to deal with it because it was her honor as his wife. Basically she blames Indian culture's portrayal of how a woman should act in life and marraige as the reason she could not escape her abusive husband. She kills her husband accidentally by burning down their house and is charged with murder. The book continues with her story of life in prison and then the campaign began by the Southall Black Sisters to free her.

I liked the book a lot; it was a very easy read. The descriptions were great- especially the descriptions of prison and the comraderie of the women in prison. It took a few weeks to read (I read it somewhat distractedly, getting back into the swing of reading for pleasure as was). Definitely recommended reading by myself for anyone interested in feminism and struggles against domestic violence and cultures that ignore domestic violence as a rights violation.
3.2/ 4 stars.