An interesting interview with Warren Farrell, former feminist, now a "men's issues advocate".
http://interviewly.com/i/warren-farrell-apr-2014-reddit
MOTIVATION
All throughout my life, I have seen men repress their feelings. As a boy, I don't know how many times we are told not to cry, not to speak our minds, not to be true to our feelings, to be tough.
I don't believe for a second that repressing one's feelings or pretending that one is fine when one has been hurt, that this makes one happier. Repression, defenses make such issues harder to fix.
As far as I can see, it's not actually a gender issue, but there is a lot of room for improvement, for males. Just look at the stats for mental illnesses, incarceration, crime stats, suicide rates, addiction rates (eg. smoking, drug use), life expectancy... the ground to cover is as vast as all of human history and will be an multi-generational process.
Growing up, I began to see social expectations, massive gender biases. Ridiculous as it was, I did not really have the skill, courage, clear-headedness to point it out.
I also go to therapy. One of the misconceptions about therapy is how it's just about the client, the issues they want to work on and the goals they want to achieve. No. The further down the rabbit hole you go, the more issues you see in not only yourself, but in the people you've met in your life, and the relation to the results they get in their lives. You see possible reasons for why she is a feminist, why he became religious, why he is in that job, why he smokes. You begin to see below the surface and identify strengths and dysfunction in people. And gradually, you start to wonder why isn't everybody in therapy, particularly men.
Just as psychology has been getting more popular all the time, the conversation about men's issues is really just starting.
I am no collectivist. Unlike feminism, "men's issues" is avoiding marxist ideology. The male gender is not viewed as a collective demanding "collective rights and freedoms", but only as an attribute of the individual and the effects of being biologically male.
There are no activists, feminists trying to change the rules. There is no government intervention, no initiatives, no lobby. Instead of collective action, it is about self-improvement, self-determination, seeking and spreading the truth.
There is no making-up of narratives, no playing-the-victim, no affirmative action. In the place of these, is analysis and discussion about how to change this at the grassroots level, in organizations, in the family, among peers, in oneself.
There is only one tool. Pointing out the truth as one sees it, with facts and reasoning, and offering possible solutions.
THREATS
Talking about men's issues can be hazardous. For one, many men don't know what it's about. On the other hand, it goes against social justice warriors (eg. SJW), political correctness and feminism, very much mainstream trends. Within the "Men's issues" community, there are many schools of thought, which spend most of their time competing against each other. Each school of thought sees their part of the elephant. Men's Rights Activists see the legal problems faced by men as the center problem. Masculinists want to replicate feminism for men. MGTOWs see male desire, commitment to long-term relationships as the cause of many problems. Misogynists see any problem faced by men and point at the female gender.
But the biggest threat, by far, is
failure to spread and export values. As with any religion, faith, philosophy tech, culture, idea, meme, the limits to growth remains the willingness of its members to spread its messages far and wide. In the context of men's issues, it dies when its members let people turn a blind eye to the problems most commonly faced by men and yet are continually understated and not solved.
WEAKNESSES
The primary problem with Men's Issues is that it is a broad bunch of inter-related issues. There is no specific, well-defined problem.
For example,
...
//
To be Continued
