NoCalOwner
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quote:
ORIGINAL: MaitresseEden The Men's movement is just now begining it's first wave... An off-topic aside: I wish that were true, but I'm afraid that it's mostly been under your (and most people's) radar for a long time. I first started hearing about a men's movement, and men's groups, about 20 years ago. Here's a good article (now 10 years old, but still relevent) by someone who'd belonged to men's groups since the early '80s: http://www.achillesheel.freeuk.com/article15_4.html His conclusion mirrors what I've seen -- that while some men's groups may have positive effects on members, most of them accomplish little or nothing outside of their own small circle. The scope of the movement seems very limited, and lack of agreement about even what the issues are has resulted in a fragmented movement which fights itself. The men's movement started as an offshoot of the women's movement, and had very similar beliefs and goals, but by the early '90s there were groups ranging from the Mythopoetic faction -- think Robert Bly, drumming and rituals -- to the militant Father's Rights and antifeminist groups, to the religious groups like Promise Keepers. It's hard to even say that there is a men's movement anymore, there are more like 5-8 of them, which, taken as a whole, have no uniting principles or coherent direction. The feminist men's groups still exist, but not on much of a scale. The Mythopoetics got to be huge in the mid-to-late '90s, but now seem to be in stagnation and decline -- after you give yourselves a belated rite of passage, what then? There aren't any issues to motivate guys. Circumcision? Battered men? Gimme a break. Rape of men in prisons, and the relatively high level of male homelessness are real issues, but involve expensive changes which are out of political vogue. Anyway, I hope nobody's got high expectations for some sort of revolution arising out of men's movements. The male feminists were the first generation, and the Mythopoetics the second, but I haven't seen any sign of a third generation showing up to fill the void, or even of an issue which might motivate a third generation. The white American male is the most privileged and complacent person in the world, and there are some good shows on cable tonight. Usual caveat: everything above is biased and dubious.
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"Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent rather than passive agreement; for if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter." -- Bertrand Russell
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