Justin Trottier belongs to (or for all I know is the ED of) a men’s rights organization called the Canadian Association for Equality, aka Café (geddit?). It has a Facebook page, which is currently full of Karen Straughan’s talk. It also has a website, which triggered a virus warning, so don’t go there.
The Toronto Star ran an article on it last August.
Adam McPhee is a man. In his eyes, that puts him at a great disadvantage.
“Women have the ‘Walk a Mile in Her Shoes’ campaign,” says the 32-year-old. “But I don’t see a campaign for women to walk around in steel-toed boots. Men have hard shoes, too.”
McPhee is one of a small but swelling group who believe men have become the new underclass. He hopes to open a mancave that will serve as a refuge for his downtrodden brethren. The Canadian Association for Equality, a men’s rights group of which he is a board member, has launched a campaign to establish the first “Centre for Men and Families” in Toronto.
The new underclass. Right, that’s why women dominate business and the law and movies and music and corporations and finance and government and the military and STEM subjects and…
Local women’s rights advocates agree today’s males face many hardships, but disagree with CAFÉ’s methods of solving them.
“They tend to be more frustrated about women’s rights being protected and women’s equality being promoted, rather than men’s rights being violated,” says Sarah Blackstock, director of advocacy and communications at YWCA Toronto. “If we’re trying to build a society marked by compassion and equality, this centre won’t help us do that.”
CAFE has attempted to open chapters at several campuses across Canada in the past year, only to be met with heated protests. In June, the Canadian Federation of Students put forth a motion to oppose “men’s rights awareness groups” like CAFE, alleging they “provide environments of sexism, patriarchy and misogyny to manifest and be perpetuated on campus.”
Last November, CAFE came under fire when several women who protested at one of their University of Toronto events, featuring guest lecturer Dr. Warren Farrell, were later profiled on the website register-her.com. The site is run by U.S.-based men’s rights website A Voice for Men and is dedicated to exposing females they allege are “false rape accusers” and bigots.
A Voice for Men…I was on their front page once. I did not like that.
SlutWalk organizer Colleen Westendorf agrees spaces are needed to discuss men’s issues, but questions CAFE’s motives.
“Their approach seems to blame feminism for the suffering of men,” she says. “They say they’re interested in gender equality, yet they deny the ways women are still hugely over-represented in experiencing violence and highly under-represented in positions of power.”
But McPhee argues feminists have swung the gender pendulum too far in their own direction.
Thus validating Westendorf’s claim. If the status quo now is swinging the pendulum too far in our direction…yes, that guy is decidedly opposed to equality for women.
Wanna whine about steel toes? How about how hard it was to find decently priced steel toes for my wife so she could have safe footwear while helping me fix the house up?
I love my boots. I’m not going to whine that anyone “doesn’t have to wear them”. Steel toe (or composite toe) boots may be heavier, but the good ones are built to support and be comfortable regardless. If anything, steel toes are representative of male privilege.
I’m…not really sure where I’m going with this. It seems patently absurd to me to use steel toe boots as indicative of how “hard” men have life. All I can seem to come up with is equally absurd.
Umm, hate to break it to you, dude, but I’m a woman who wears steel-toed boots every. single. day. And I walk an average of 5-7 miles a day in them. So shut it.
Because apparently equality is a zero-sum game that involves feminazgûls taking rights away from the Menz in exact, equal proportion to their gains. (Actually not true.)
I’m a man who can’t find steel-toed boots that fit. I have wide feet, and all the commonly-available ones pinch. Ordinary shoes and boots stretch to fit, but steel toes? Not so much.
There’s no pendulum. There’s no balance. There’s just people, and how they treat each other, and how they deserve to be treated.
I hate how anti-feminists distract from the real issues facing men.
Yup, when it looks like it’s unequal, gimme a call. Until then I’ll be over here supporting women.
“Because apparently equality is a zero-sum game that involves feminazgûls taking rights away from the Menz in exact, equal proportion to their gains. (Actually not true.)”
Yeah, I noticed that implication in the pendulum analogy, too. It certainly is a weird way of thinking equality.
Here ya go, fuckface: http://www.womenbuildingfutures.com
From someone with a sister who’s been in the construction industry for a good decade and a half and seen her take all kinds of crap from whiney little fucks like you, feel free to choke on shit and die, you little shitweasel.
Lying little fucks. No wonder the slymepitters love them so.
BTW, if some woman needs steel toed boots who can’t afford ’em — she can tell me her size and shipping details or give me her paypal address and I’ll see if I can help gear her up in the name of Justin Vacula.
My steel-toed boots have to go get resoled, so in the meantime I’m wearing my steel-toed running shoes.
No, I have no idea why they make the latter, but as soon as I saw a pair I pounced.
Well, you know the technical definition of “anti-male discrimination” (or “misandry”, “reverse sexism” etc.. etc..): “Everything that doesn’t discriminate against women”.
But how can I have a right if you also have the same right? It’s not as if it can be in two places at once.. oh, wait… never mind. :-/
Me too. And they are way more comfortable than heels. I can get my magic sciatica-preventing inserts in them at least.
Though to be fair I do complain about how ugly they are.
But it’s true. They are super ugly.
I am woman
and I ♥ my steel-toe boots.
all 5 pair.
Today i listened to the Australian (ABC radio) lunchtime interview of a woman, Radia Siddique, who doesn’t think that women have equality where it counts, in the armed forces especially. ABC radio interview available here.
They’re not steel-toe (wish I had some), but my Ugly Boots are definitely heavy and awesome. When I wear them, I clump – and I love wearing them in public. They make me feel secure.
So, They are aware “Walk a mile in their shoes” is a metaphor? We are not literally comparing shoes here.
I must be in an overly generous mood this morning because I started off reading the steel toed boots thing as McFee alluding to dangerous working conditions and decimation of health and safety regulations in the work place. An actual issue that affects men.
…But yeah that didn’t last long. Just another MRA who doesn’t actually give a shit about trying to solve the issues that affect men but just wants an opportunity to blame everything on “bitches”.
What I want to know is why there isn’t a campaign for chainmail dishwashing gloves?
Just yesterday, I was washing the pots (because there was no woman around to do it, you understand) when I dropped a mug and smashed the handle… I thought I could fix it*, so I went to finish washing the thing for later fixing. Suddenly the water was red. I had slashed into my hand, nearly sliced my finger off (on a bloody (now literally) teacup!!!). I had to go to hospital to get the wound glued. So why wasn’t I provided with chainmail gloves? It’s misandry, that’s what it is!
*Couldn’t. Nearly lost a finger for the sake of a mug that was beyond saving anyway.
haitied: Actually, “Walk A Mile in her Shoes” is the international men’s march to stop rape, sexual assault and gender violence. It’s used locally both as a way for men to show support for the cause of sexual assault as allies, as well as to raise money for local DV shelters. You can see the website here.
http://www.walkamileinhershoes.org
I wasn’t able to participate in last year’s local event due to technical issues and scheduling conflicts, so I donated heavily. I’ll be attending this year though.
Yes the site and it’s message is gendered, but this is not the One True Way, let alone the Only Way. It is part of a solution to a broader issue.
MRA rarely ever push for solutions to the problems they discuss. They just want to use their problems to present a false equivalence and shut up activists actually dealing with issues in a constructive way.
“feminazgûls” Nice. I’ll have to remember that one. It will appeal to my LOTR fangirl wife even more!
As much damage as these MRA types do to feminism, they are also doing as much damage to the legitimate mens’ issues that they supposedly stand for. I’m pretty sure they’ve all forgotten what those were by now, though.
Zyzle@16:
Your wording here leaves a little to be desired, but I’m going to assume vagueness and not intent. Workplace safety affects everyone. Some fields may affect men more, true, but then, that’s one of the major points of feminism now, isn’t it? 😉
@19 As Blackstock form the YWCA points out though, its rarely about even discussing the problems that affect men, it’s usually more complaining that women’s issues are being discussed at all.
@20 Gah, you posted while was writing that last one. I agree, I could have worded it better.
My calling workplace safety a “men’s issue” is probably the same as I’d usually call sexual harassment in the workplace a “women’s issue”, its not that no man has ever been affected by sexual harassment in the workplace, just that it disproportionally affects women.
And yes I agree that issues that affect one gender over another are the major points of feminism, I wasn’t trying to say otherwise.
In June, the Canadian Federation of Students put forth a motion to oppose “men’s rights awareness groups” like CAFE, alleging they “provide environments of sexism, patriarchy and misogyny to manifest and be perpetuated on campus.”
This is rich coming from a group that has had nothing whatsoever to say about the increasing number of gender segregated gabfests featuring speakers who claim women are deficient in intellect and that homosexuals are less than human.
I’ve been aware of Café’s existence for some time, and I do not endorse any of their views or positions. However, they’ve never insisted on gender-segregated seating at any of their events and they’ve never launched into heated tirades against homosexuals, both of which the Canadian Federation of Students is quite willing to tolerate provided it involves a certain constituency.
The CFS is a nest of clueless ( and increasingly dangerous) hypocrites quite willing to tolerate and even perpetuate certain extreme forms of sexism, misogyny and patriachy.
I guess they’re inspired by their counterparts in the UK.