Yesterday was International Men’s Day. An important video from Paul Elam on feminists co-opting IMD around the world. Here in the UK, the press release points people towards a number of feminist or feminist-friendly organisations, including:
– CALM, a male suicide charity led by Jane Powell, a radical feminist. The organisation spends some of its income on funding ‘annual audits of masculinity’. Hmm, I wonder how many male suicides those audits will prevent? The organisation’s analysis of male suicide is, it seems to me, a profoundly feminist one – and founded upon gynocentrism, predictably. It fails to recognize why men don’t seek help in times of crisis – life has taught them society cares about women, not about men, and stoicism is an appropriate response – and seeks to change men, rather than have substantive support made available for them, and the existence of that support communicated to men. Feminists are victim blaming, in short. What can the CALM helplines offer men who are the victims of domestic violence, but find no support is available? Nothing. What can the CALM helplines offer fathers unable to see their children because of a family court system run along gynocentric lines? Nothing.
– York University Feminist Society.
– The Fatherhood Institute.
Two days ago Karen Woodall slated The Fatherhood Institute in her article on shared parenting. She wrote:
There is no lack of evidence to show that children do well when both of their parents are involved in their lives. International research can be found at LW4SP and other sites dedicated to raising the reality. However in the UK, just as international research around family violence is ignored by government, this research is too often quietly shelved in favour of that which is commissioned and paid for by women’s rights interest groups. With the reduction of the representation of the needs of fathers in government to feminist appeasing groups such as the Fatherhood Institute, [our emphasis) it seems very clear to me that the road to legislative change in the UK is going to be long and hard indeed.
We may have more to say about IMD in due course.
