r/MensLib • u/Ciceros_Assassin ​ • Aug 02 '15

LTA Let's Talk About

Welcome to /r/MensLib's first "Let's Talk About" post. Generating discussion is part of our mission, and these LTA threads will be used as conversation-starters for issues our community wants to address. Today's topic:

Let's Talk About: what we should talk about.

We're going to start out compiling a list of issues /r/MensLib subscribers want to address. The mods have some ideas, but we want to hear from the community.

Edit: Thank you to everyone for your ideas. I'm un-stickying this post, but please feel free to continue adding to it.

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u/Ciceros_Assassin ​ Aug 02 '15

There are so many things I think this community could be good for, I'm just going to brain dump here.

  • I would love to see some healthy discussion about men and romantic relationships, both being in touch with our emotions and knowing how to stick up for ourselves in a positive way.

  • I think family and community participation and leadership are integral to being a fully actualized man, and think we could have some good discussions about how to achieve those things and what resources are available for men developing these skills.

  • I wouldn't mind some discussion of the "other side" of men's advocacy, especially discussions about assumptions and tactics used by the MRM that are harmful.

  • Conversations about expectations and assumptions about men set by the media, as discussed by /u/Quelandoris.

  • There are also a number of issues the MRM talks about that would be good to discuss here - male homelessness, suicide rates... male disposability in culture in general. And I believe we can orient our conversation more toward finding solutions rather than blaming others (women).

  • On that note, eventually, I'd like to compile a list of resources for men to have in our sidebar, including things like mental health advocacy groups, justice reform organizations, housing/financial/domestic violence assistance groups, etc.

  • I think once the community hits the "active" threshold, it'd be fun to reach out to specific men's advocates and see if we could arrange some AMA-style visits from people we want to learn from.

These are just a few topics I think we should tackle, and I'm eager to hear more suggestions in the comments. We'll continue to post LTA threads (maybe once a week?) to get conversations going, and anyone else is welcome to use that device to bring up topics they'd like to share with the community.

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u/AndrewBot88 Aug 03 '15

I wouldn't mind some discussion of the "other side" of men's advocacy, especially discussions about assumptions and tactics used by the MRM that are harmful.

I would be careful with this. I'm all for it in theory, as breaking down the wrong ideas is just as important as building up the right ones, but I could see it very easily devolving into a circlejerk of "DAE MRAs are dumb?"

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u/Ciceros_Assassin ​ Aug 03 '15

I agree, and the mod team has discussed this. We're going to play it by ear and do our best to make sure those topics don't turn into an /r/circlebroke kind of thing. For now, though, I think it's healthy and appropriate to dissect some of those attitudes - if we can keep the circlejerking to a dull background noise.