Attention of Toronto feminists of UofT, regarding yesterday's protest:

• Instead of forming a physical wall preventing those interested in civil discussion from getting to a talk...
• Instead of calling us rape apologists, rape supporters, rapists, and perverts...
• Instead of violently assaulting people attending the talk, neutral journalists, and the cops trying to protect us...
• Instead of screaming at all of us that we perpetuate rape culture...
• Instead of yelling that a centre dedicated to the gendered issues that males face in school is a danger to all women in the university...
• Instead of claiming that we are all sexist, homophobic, racist, horrible and evil people...

...consider actually joining in the conversation.

Yesterday, November 16th, 2012, at the Medical Sciences Building of University of Toronto, Dr Warren Farrell held a talk focused on why boys are dropping out of school more, failing school more, applying for school less, committing suicide at higher rates, etc. This talk was not an anti-feminist speech in the least.

Once we finally got to start the talk (over an hour late, due to the blockade), Warren praised feminism and the womens rights movement in 5 separate occasions. He delivered a message of peace, compassion, love, and interest in our society's boys. By all accounts, he was undeserving of all of the hate he received outside. He is a caring, soft-spoken man, and he did his best to answer any question that were asked of him.

If any of you had the patience to actually listen to what he had to say, you'd have felt like fools. When I was denied entry by those of you linking arms, I was able to talk to many of you. With almost every single point I made about mens issues, we reached agreement - but you insisted that any discussion of male issues outside of what feminism allows is hate speech, and firmly believed that you should be able to stop us from taking part.

Just because there are more of you, and you are stronger and louder, does not mean what you are doing is right.

If you want feminism to remain as a movement for equality, you seriously might want to reconsider your anti-male stances. And before anyone here claims "Not all feminists are like that", I'm not saying that they are. But I am saying that these people identify themselves with a term that you hold dear. If you are letting them take feminism and twist it into a violently sexist movement of oppression and censorship, as we saw yesterday, then that's on you, not on us.

I know many of you who were there truly believe in equality. Take a second and actually consider what you are standing for when you protest a conversation simply because boys are the focus and not girls. It is both hilarious and sad that we have come to this.

Misandry: The other side of sexism

Misandry is the hate of men.  It's counterpart, misogyny, the hate of women, is much better known.  Some people call this "reverse sexism", but they do not understand the term.  This is not a reversal of sexism but sexism itself.  Today, many people think there is no such thing as a systematic oppression of males in our society, some people think such a thing could never happen, and some have never even thought of the idea.

Sadly, after exploring the reactions to similar topics, I have little faith in people and their ability to see either the main points or the bigger picture, and I feel as though I need to blatantly defend myself with this disclaimer to spare myself a lot of hateful comments:
I do not intend to belittle the issues women face every day due to our patriarchy, neither do I intend to deny any privileges that men may have in society.  I intend to draw attention to issues that men face, and suggest the possibility that women are privileged in their own way in the same society.  The two statements are not at all exclusive.  I do not consider myself feminist nor masculinist, but humanist: I aim for women's rights just as I aim for men's rights, with equality between all sexes and other categorizations of people, be they in gender, sexuality, race, etc.  Finally, I do not at all claim that we are at an equality where we are now, just that equality is the ideal goal.

I have collected 4 major recent cases that easily display the misandry in today's society, and each one will cover a topic of flirting/being sexualized, exhibitionism/voyeurism, rape, and genital mutilation.  With these few cases, I hope to bring to light some of the unfairness that men deal with.  Each case will be presented objectively, then presented again with reversed gender roles to further push objectivity, followed by my own analysis of the situation.  Please read about each case and look up more about it if you'd like to know more.