Everyone I know has now had time to read and respond to “I won’t date feminists Dave” and the results have been astounding, entertaining, and informative.
His whole premise is that “feminists hate men,”* and how that man-hate ruins heterosexual relationships. Easy to mock, but it got me thinking about how easy it would be to say that I don’t date Men’s Rights Activists because they hate women.
I think a lot of women would say exactly that. I think that it’s not wholly off the mark, because while feminism is about gender equality for everybody, MRAs are focused solely on how women ruin everything, and many of them seem to have a very primal anger towards any woman who challenges them.
But if you ask them, they all say they love women, and claim that they appreciate and respect women. They believe this to be true. If I claim that I don’t date MRAs because they hate women, they would be laughably foolish not to turn that around on me and claim that I hate men.
So, taking their claims at face value (bear with me), it got me to thinking: why won’t I date MRAs? Well, looking at their very public behavior and statements, I can explain it without resorting to a trite and simplistic answer.
I won’t date MRAs because:
- They lack compassion for anyone’s problems but their own
- They believe that rape is acceptable behavior
- They believe that threats of violence towards women is acceptable behavior
- They think most women are dumb
- They only appreciate traditionally beautiful white women of childbearing age
- They believe that making fun of women’s looks/body is acceptable behavior
- They won’t tolerate from others the behavior they demand they be tolerated for
I won’t date MRAs not because they hate (some) women, but because they do not treat ALL women with respect, or even as fully human, which is evidenced by their own words and actions, easily found all over the internet.
Dave won’t date feminists because someone once told him “feminists hate men” and he’s never once doubted that.
*For the record, in case anyone missed the memo: feminism is not about hating men, it’s about gender equality. That is not to say that there aren’t women out there who hate men, because there are, but they are a very small percentage of women and are generally considered pretty fringe to the major streams of feminism. Also for the record, I definitely love men. 🙂
