Debate:The men's rights movement isn't a fringe movement

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Debate.png This is a Debate page.
Feel free to add your own spin on the story. Please keep it civil!
Information icon.svg This debate was created by Anonymous dude.


Proposition[edit]

Note that I'm not an MRA myself nor do I particularly agree with them. But on your page for MRA's you describe them as a fringe movement. As someone who's spent some time on the internet, I don't think they're a fringe movement even remotely. "Fringe movement" is my idea of things like the flat earth society. And MRA's are not limited to places like 4CHAN, they're on very mainstream internet sites as well such as Youtube, Reddit, etc. They seem to have quite a bit of popularity. Like I said, I'm not arguing whether MRA's are actually good or bad, or whether they have any valid points, but only that they aren't a fringe movement. — Unsigned, by: 47.223.84.181 / talk

Agree[edit]

Judging by the state of this site's article on "TERFS", RationalWiki itself would appear to be run by MRAs. — Unsigned, by: 109.181.3.84 / talk / contribs

Most MRAs beg to differ, according to them this site is quote "overrun by radical feminists" endquote. ☭Comrade GC☭Ministry of Praise 00:24, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Disagree[edit]

I personally know no one who is to such an extreme, a woman hating, mansplaining, woman objectifying idiot who thinks the genders are now equal and that the male gender is systematically being opressed. I know tons of guys who will hold maybe one of those positions...but to the extent they can be called MRA stooges, none, and I don't live in isolation in some happyland where everyone is at the front edge of progressivism. The only contact I have with MRA idiots are online, and only rarely so...limited to the garbage that pops up in comment sections and in the worst realms of the internet. I'm not saying they are fringe as if...only 1 out of a 100 men hold these views. Perhaps a little more, or even more than I'd guess. But most men? I've never seen a survey that even remotely shows sexist and mysogenistic views remotely representing half of all men. That most men are MRA is an incredile claim, and you'd have to have some statistics and/or strong evidence beyond the fact that their bullshit is popular on some websites and that you encounter them sometimes online. ShabiDOO 01:11, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

The men's rights movement certainly has the potential to be more than a fringe movement. Some parts of it -- e.g. father's rights -- have good points. It is a fringe movement first because it is a 'movement', whose chief activities are online posturing of the sort that lends itself to self-radicalization through one-upmanship. All such 'movements' head for the fringes through their own internal logic. Plus, there is the small matter of the violence it has inspired. Smerdis of Tlön, LOAD "*", 8, 1. 01:44, 2 May 2018 (UTC)
As mentioned on the men's rights movement page itself, there are groups of men's rights advocates that are genuinely trying to address issues affecting men, but their critical look at male gender roles is the exception among the movement rather than the rule. Additionally, popularity does not determine whether or not a movement is "fringe"; in this respect I believe the OP is working from a faulty definition. --Logos (talk) 17:15, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
Since we're doing debate necromancy, I'll give my unwanted opinion. It's not "fringe" in that it's notably unpopular. It is fringe in the same sense creationism is fringe. Lots of people support and believe in creationism, it's fringe character only emerges when you put it into the context of "scientific tools for understanding how life works". Robbed of the oxygen of mere popularity and ability to argue, and put into the appropriate context, it's got little to it. Men's rights campaigns aren't fringe in terms of what noxious internet people argue about. It's fringe in the context of "tools to critically understand society and offer possible solutions to systemic problems". Its nature as a reactionary response to feminism becomes abundantly clear in that context. Unlike creationism, if you rob it of that oxygen of petty debate and popular opinion, there's a little bit of something left behind, but it scantly resembles the ideology from which it emerges. ikanreed 🐐Bleat at me 19:18, 23 April 2019 (UTC)