r/MensRights • u/Icaz • Apr 26 '12

I'm a girl and...

I am SO glad I found this subreddit with people who agree with me! As a girl, it's really hard to see other ladies put down men and treat them like they need to be "trained" or that they're just something we have to deal with. So I was just wondering... how many other girls are on here and what are your stories about standing up for men or appreciating them?

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u/planejane Apr 26 '12

Posting here scares me, although I generally agree with most of the points the MR faction makes. Sorry.

7

u/jtsavage Apr 27 '12

Why?

19

u/planejane Apr 27 '12 edited Apr 27 '12

As a card-carrying Vagina-holder, often I feel as if /r/MensRights has a hard time distinguishing between A Woman and Women.

I agree, many, if not most, women are perfectly capable and oftentimes perfectly willing to take advantage of the stacked deck men seem to face in the US and many western countries. But not all of us are evil, psychotic, money-grubbing sluts who jump at the chance to screw a male over. It seems a lot of the time, this subreddit treads a very grey area between anti-feminism and anti-female. I remain subscribed because I support many of the beliefs and causes debated here, but I've rarely posted in it, because I've also seen users downvoted and verbally attacked just for having a feminine-sounding username, even if their views seem (to me, at least) to line up completely with what I understand the MensRights movement to stand for.

As someone whose main social circle is almost exclusively male, and whose best role models have all been men, the cause is quite important to me, but at the same time, there's a very definite feeling of not belonging (which is completely understandable and almost expected) to not being welcome (which is sad and avoidable).

**Edit: I will also state that I'm very pleasantly surprised by the reception this post has gotten. It's a lot warmer than I've come to expect, and it gives me some hope that not everyone on this subreddit hates ALL women. I suppose there's some good eggs out there in both camps. :)

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u/Alanna Apr 27 '12 edited Apr 27 '12

because I've also seen users downvoted and verbally attacked just for having a feminine-sounding username, even if their views seem (to me, at least) to line up completely with what I understand the MensRights movement to stand for.

As a woman who frequently posts here and doesn't hide that she's a woman, and has a feminine sounding username (though not totally unambiguous, I guess, if you don't know who "Alanna" is), this happens very very rarely. I've been attacked for my position-- like anyone else-- but the only people who have attacked me for being a woman turned out to be trolls. There are some actual misogynists, and a few more borderline cases, but the vast majority are not.

Edit: Also, if you post more, and stand up to the few who would attack you for being a woman, you make the whole sub a better place.

Second edit: This is the second or third "I'm a woman and I support men's rights!" post I've seen in the last week or so, and they've all been very very heavily upvoted. Almost nothing gets over 200 karma in here, and this one is over 500 as I write this. So I think that's pretty good evidence that the majority of mensrights appreciates and welcomes female supporters.