User:Robert Brockway

Outlook

 * Science has demonstrated that the human species shows low sexual dimorphism compared to most other animal species on Earth
 * Despite this, men and women are different in many small ways
 * As humans our brains are programmed to focus on these differences
 * We also tend to culturally emphasise these differences
 * Most people over-emphasise gender as a defining characteristic
 * Men and women overlap significantly in most characteristics
 * Men tend to vary more in most characteristics than women (consistent with most other mammals)
 * Differences between men and women are largely a result of adaption
 * Comparison of men and women is a largely futile endeavour
 * The relative value of the differences between men and women depend largely on the external environment
 * An advantage in one area is offset by disadvantages elsewhere - demand for energy constrains the animal
 * Men and women show the same range of virtues and vices
 * Claims that women are nicer or more virtuous are specious
 * The law should mention gender as rarely as practically possible
 * Affirmative action should not be permitted as it has consistently failed to achieve the desired result
 * Everyone should then be entitled to compete on an equal basis to the best of their ability

Some History
Robert has always passionately believed in equality between the sexes. Indeed, he has generally regarded himself as gender blind, not seeing men and women as significantly different unless evidence existed to the contrary. By the age of 10 he was calling himself a feminist even though he had already noticed hostility towards and ridicule of males in society. He recalls mentioning that he regarded himself as a feminist to a group of teenagers at a social function and having an older girl politely suggest he didn't know the meaning of the word. He stated that he regarded a feminist as someone who believed men and women were equal and suggested there should be no reason a male could not be a feminist. The young woman agreed. At around the age of 12 he witnessed a situation in which a young women contributed to a young man getting in to some trouble. He was shocked at the manner in which she took absolutely no responsibility for what had occurred. He decided at that moment that he could not continue to call himself a feminist but continued to believe passionately in equality of the sexes.

By his teenage years Robert was calling himself an egalitarian. He continued to support the women's rights movement while simultaneously becoming concerned about certain segments of the community becoming increasingly vocal in their hostility towards men and boys. He noticed a tendency for society to accept negative claims about males without objection even when they were obviously absurd. He watched with increasing concern as major publishing houses published more and more books hostile to males. These books were often based on the most specious and biased of research. The final straw for Robert was the publication in September 2012 of The End of Men. The day he learnt about this book and its contents he decided that he could no longer actively support women's issues. Whereas in his younger days he had objected to sexism against women far more often than against men (even though he observed sexism against men far more often) he decided that henceforth he would remain silent.

Robert wonders, with his lifelong position as an egalitarian and his history of self identifying as a feminist, that if feminism has alienated him, how many other men has it alienated. He concludes he should reasonably be among the last men to be alienated in this way.

Robert tends to think that many women are nominal feminists, just as many people in western countries are nominal Christians - regarding themselves as Christian, following the broad precepts of the religion but not attending church regularly or believing or even knowing much about Christian theology.

Nominal feminists generally seem to agree broadly that individuals should be given the chance to achieve regardless of their gender. This is largely a first wave feminism perspective and one that most men in western countries reportedly agree with today. He suspects a lot of nominal feminists do not recognise the difference between their position and that of the ideological feminists that are most vocal in the movement.

Throughout most of his life Robert tended to assume that the contributions to the advancement of human civilisation by men and women were relatively equal. As a result of a flood of claims of advantages for women in the mass media Robert was prompted to dig deeper. He discovered a significant disparity in the achievements of men and women throughout history and across all cultures. He was stunned by the magnitude of the difference. The reader is invited to draw their own conclusions about which gender has contributed more to the advancement of the human species.

Despite having read widely in history, Robert spent most of his life believing in the existence of patriarchy in past societies, and to a lesser extent, in his own. Recently he has started to look at modern and historical societies with a more critical eye and has concluded that the reality was much more complicated than that. In most cases societies constrain men and women, often in different ways. To look only at the repression of women rather than to look at the society as a whole results in a biased view.

Robert recognised the disposability of men and for a long time he was prepared to accept it for the greater benefit of society. He has more recently proposed an hypothesis (based on evolutionary research conducted by others) about why the disposability of men is disadvantageous to a society or the species as a whole.

Robert had hoped that a true equality movement, inclusive of all people, would replace feminism but now believes there is a need to be more assertive of men's human rights. As a result, in November 2013 he declared himself to be a Men's Human Rights Activist (MHRA).

Robert has noted that the Men's Human Rights Movement (MHRM) is an open and pluralistic environment in which differences of opinion are tolerated and debate encouraged. It is worth noting that feminism was like this in its early days but today is a highly ideological environment which tolerates little difference of opinion. Many MHRAs have noted that it is important for the MHRM to not go down the same path. He is confident that the MHRM will continue to remain a pluralistic environment. Virtually all areas of academic inquiry dominated by men have a strong tradition of pluralism and he expects, and will work to make sure, that this remains true for the MHRM.

Robert believes that debating ideological feminists is pointless as decades of evidence shows that they are not generally open to outside ideas. Rather he believes the MHRM should focus its advocacy on boys and men to help build a more equal world and on government institutions in the form of lobbying to improve gender equality.

Robert believes that the law should mention gender as infrequently as it is practical to do so. Then individuals can compete on an even playing field regardless of their gender.

This site is dedicated to presenting positive aspects of masculinity so often ignored in the modern world and to provide resources and information to redress the balance in a society that is currently very unbalanced. Men should feel proud of their gender and the achievements of men as a whole.

Man Pride.

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