Men's rights movement

Not to be confused with the pro-feminist Men's liberation movement.

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The men's rights movement (MRM)[1] is a branch of the men's movement. The MRM in particular consists of a variety of groups and individuals known as men's rights activists (MRAs) who focus on social issues, such as specific government services, which adversely impact, or in some cases, structurally discriminate against, men and boys. Common topics discussed within the men's rights movement include family law, such as child custody, alimony and marital property distribution; reproduction; suicide; domestic violence against men; false accusations of rape; circumcision; education; conscription; social safety nets; and health policies. The men's rights movement branched off from the men's liberation movement in the early 1970s, with both groups comprising a part of the larger men's movement.

Many scholars describe the movement or parts of it as a backlash against feminism.[2] Sectors of the men's rights movement have been described by some scholars and commentators as misogynistic,[3][4][5] hateful,[6][5][7] and, in some cases, as advocating violence against women.[5][8][9] In 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center categorized some men's rights groups as being part of a hate ideology under the umbrella of male supremacy while stating that others "focused on legitimate grievances".[10][11] In 2024, UN Women claimed all men's rights movements as a whole are anti-rights movements.[12]

  1. ^ Rafail, Patrick; Freitas, Isaac (2019). "Grievance Articulation and Community Reactions in the Men's Rights Movement Online". Social Media + Society. 5 (2): 205630511984138. doi:10.1177/2056305119841387. ISSN 2056-3051.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Backlash was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Ruzankina, E.A. (2010). "Men's movements and male subjectivity". Anthropology & Archeology of Eurasia. 49 (1). Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe Inc.: 8–16. doi:10.2753/aae1061-1959490101. S2CID 144841265.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dragiewicz 2011a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c Schmitz, Rachel M.; Kazyak, Emily (12 May 2016). "Masculinities in Cyberspace: An Analysis of Portrayals of Manhood in Men's Rights Activist Websites". Social Sciences. 5 (2): 18. doi:10.3390/socsci5020018.
  6. ^ Ribeiro, Manoel Horta; Blackburn, Jeremy; Bradlyn, Barry; et al. (2021). "The Evolution of the Manosphere Across the Web". Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media. Vol. 15. Palo Alto, Calif.: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. pp. 196–207. arXiv:2001.07600v5. doi:10.1609/icwsm.v15i1.18053. ISBN 978-1-57735-869-5. ISSN 2334-0770.
  7. ^ Goldwag, Arthur (15 May 2012). "Hatewatch: Intelligence report article provokes fury among Men's Rights Activists". splcenter.org/hatewatch. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  8. ^ Roose, Joshua; Flood, M.; Alfano, M. (2020). "Challenging the Use of Masculinity as a Recruitment Mechanism in Extremist Narratives: A Report to the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety" (PDF). Department of Justice and Community Safety.[dead link‍]
  9. ^ Farrell, Tracie; Fernandez, Miriam; Novotny, Jakub; Alani, Harith (June 2019). "Exploring Misogyny across the Manosphere in Reddit" (PDF). Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Web Science. pp. 87–96. doi:10.1145/3292522.3326045. ISBN 978-1-4503-6202-3. S2CID 195776677.
  10. ^ "Male Supremacy". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  11. ^ Russell-Kraft, Stephanie (4 April 2018). "The Rise of Male Supremacist Groups". The New Republic. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference unwomen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).