Sunday, April 29, 2012

Pro-Choice Masculism

The men's rights movement is gaining some steam in good ol' Germany. One thought that I found was worth repeating (and I am really too lazy to link right here, but I believe it was from an anon interview with Arne Hoffmann on Cuncti) was the following.

If the emancipation of women meant freedom to work, the emancipation of men means freedom from work

I really like that quote although another masculist pointed out that what we are fighting for is not freedom from work but freedom of choice. That got me thinking as I have sawn this idea formulated elsewhere, too. For instance Warren Farrell:

As the book's title implied, The Myth of Male Power challenged the belief that men had the power—in part by challenging the definition of power. Farrell defined power as "control over one's life."

A similar belief was brought forward buy another article I found while looking for links on misandry:

Book Review of Anthony Synnott, Re-Thinking Men: Heroes, Villains and
Victims


Synnott’s argument is further advanced by his discussion of gender
relations in the context of power. Here, he asserts that the focus has
been particularly myopic, often pitting women against men in a struggle
for power. This conception tends to overlook the various meanings of
power, ignoring that power can be oppressive (having the power “over”)
but also liberating (having the power “to do”)
. Synnott offers a more
complex and diagonal theory of power and gender relations that consid-
ers gender and power as more “fluid” concepts, with multiple lines of
power (including gender, race, class, religion, culture, etc.) criss-cross-
ing each other, contributing to the overall power dynamic. In addition,
and perhaps most importantly, Synnott lays down a solid argument that
empowering women to achieve gender justice need not entail toppling or
bringing down men.

Certainly an interesting topic.


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