Helen Smith: Men on Strike

Aktivarum hade två inlägg om den nya boken ”Men on Strike”, som där beskrevs som ”årets viktigaste bok”. http://aktivarum.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/men-on-strike-del-2-herrklubbar-forbjudna-damforbund-tillatna/

Med ett sådant omdöme får man ju ta sig en titt, och det är sannerligen en mycket bra bok. En sak som ofta stör mig i debatten är hur kvinnor är syftet, diskussionen rör hur samhället skall organiseras för att vara bättre för kvinnorna, medan männen ses i bästa fall som en tillgång, i värsta fall som ett problem; för mig är det självklart att männen borde vara lika mycket syfte som kvinnorna. Det är något som Smith också reagerar på med kraft: ”When reading through [”Manning up” and ”Save the males”], I get the impression not that men are autonomous beings who deserve equality as equal citizens in a democratic society, but rather that they should be treated well enough so that they will want to marry women, have children and support them, so that women will have a better life. I have a different take: I propose that men are autonomous beings who are entitled to justice and equality and the pursuit of their own happiness because they are human beings in a supposedly free society. Too bad this is such a radical departure that a whole book has to be written just to make this point. One would think it would be obvious, but this is not obvious in today’s America.” (s 6, min fetstil motsvarar hennes kursivering)

Helen Smith, PhD, är en psykolog som lyssnar på män: ”As I read through all of the comments I have received from men around the country over the years on why they do not want to marry, I can’t help but feel that many so-called experts are poor communicators. My interactions and observations show that men often know their minds very well, but they are reluctant to communicate in interpersonal and political settings for fear of coming across as weak or, worse, being accused of being misogynistic. Or sometimes, they are communicating, it’s just that no one is listening or people are actively rejecting what they say. I have even had relatives or case workers – almost all women – who tell me that the boy or man they have accompanied for an evaluation or therapy will not talk; they are too closed down. Yet, not once in my twenty-plus-years career has one of those men or boys refused to talk. How did I get them to talk? I listened.” (s 4, fetstil motsvarar hennes kursivering)

Några smakprov från kapitlet “My Body, My Choice – Your Body, No Choice”, Smith citerar Warren Farrell: “He realizes that when a woman and he have created a pregnancy, the issue is not the rights of the female vs. the fetus, but the rights of the female, the fetus, and the father. He realizes that a woman who says “It’s my body, it’s my business”, and then chooses to have a child that she makes him pay for; forces him to take a job he might like less just because it pays more; forces him to stress himself out and die early – forces him to use his body for eighteen years. If it’s his body being used for eighteen years, and his body dying sooner, shouldn’t it be his business, too? Isn’t two decades of a man’s life worth nine months of a woman’s?” (s 47)

Även om en korrektare jämförelse vore arton år av hans liv, mot arton år och nio månader av hennes, blir resultatet likväl att han också borde ha något att säga till om – åtminstone ifråga om huruvida han skall ha försörjningsansvar för ett barn som hon väljer att föda.

”Higdon reports that there are ”numerous cases in which an adult woman became pregnant as a result of sexual relations she initiated with a minor child”. However, every time the question arises of whether a male victim of statutory rape should be made liable for child support, “every single court has answered in the affirmative – holding that yes, the minor father is liable”. … What about a female who was the victim of sexual assault: Would she, like her male counterpart, be held liable for the support of the children? Of course not. Reproductive rights are for women. … The court ruled that “[i]f the sexual intercourse which results in the birth of a child is involuntary or without actual consent, a mother may have ‘just cause’ … for failing or refusing to support such child”. I thought it was all about the “best interests of the child” when it came to child support in the United States. Apparently, that’s only if the parent is male. As the saying goes, “women have rights; men have responsibilities”. (s 47, fetstil motsvarar hennes kursivering)

Nuförtiden kan ju en del feminister tillstå att dylikt faktiskt inte är särskilt jämställt, men är då snabba att hävda att feminismen ändå inte har någon som helst skuld i frågan; att det är inte feminismens fel att män blir diskriminerade så här. Men att feministerna inte bryr sig om vilka konsekvenser det som de driver igenom har för mäns rättigheter, betyder inte att de konsekvenserna inte existerar, och det befriar inte feminismen från moraliskt ansvar för de konsekvenserna.

Några blandade röster:

”… har ni märkt allt liv det blir närhelst mansfrågor skall diskuteras på universiteten? Vad [de] här människorna försöker förhindra är att män pratar med varandra. Bedragare vill helt enkelt inte att någon skall prata med måltavlan de blåser”. Och citerar: “When a partner isolates their spouse from friends, and associates in public places, it is called domestic abuse. When it´s done to an entire gender it´s called feminism”. http://aktivarum.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/men-on-strike-del-2-herrklubbar-forbjudna-damforbund-tillatna/

En audiointervju (27 minuter) med Helen Smith, av Ed Driscoll: http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2013/06/17/men-on-strike/ (det är in-house, alltså bara snälla frågor, ingen hård debatt).

“… what she writes will be nothing new to those who have been on the frontlines since the war began.  The book will bring no new observations, epiphanies, or theories to veterans or those well-read about the plight of men in western civilization.  It is simply a refining, repackaging and delivery of an argument that has been going on for a decade.  However, the intended audience is not members of The Manosphere, but rather society at large and is where the value of her book lies.  It is made to be digestible to the general public and, again, has the backing of Dr. Helen’s professional background.” http://captaincapitalism.blogspot.se/2013/05/book-review-of-men-on-strike.html

“… provides an overview of the societal, legal, and cultural obstacles that have led them to the choices that we as a society increasingly bemoan. This is a must-read for men struggling to navigate through today’s world, and for women eager to discover why “good men” are hard to find.” http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/06/19/why-men-are-going-galt-a-review-of-men-on-strike/

“Unlike other books that purport to be concerned about the societal degradation of men, Dr. Helen’s book is not driven by the Female Imperative. She is aware that the degradation of men is not likely to serve women well in the long run, but she also opposes that legal and social degradation in its own right.” https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/608029828

“Back when “Father Knows Best” first aired, just 2 percent of white children and 16 percent of nonwhite children were born out of wedlock. By the time “S—- My Dad Says” hit Twitter, that was the case for 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 73 percent of blacks. American kids are about three times as likely to live without their dads now as they were a half-century earlier.” http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/kyle-wingfield/2013/jun/16/not-all-family/

“… when I write about “feminism”, my goal is to ensure women empower themselves by getting the full story on any matter and then making fully informed decisions. While I was aware the rate of marriage in this country was going down and the number of single-parent households was going up, I never connected it to men making their own set of informed decisions. Therefore, Dr. Helen’s book was a real eye-opener.” http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/05/book-review-men-on-strike-by-dr-helen-smith/

“Smith … takes an approach that will likely win her even more opposition—consulting men skilled at meeting and picking up women in social settings, practitioners of the The Game. In the realm of applied social science, skilled pick up artists could teach a master class to most sociology professors on what works in real life. … Smith quotes at length a blogger knowledgeable in The Game who sees the long-term societal implications: “Men slowly discover that the efforts to win women’s attention via employment is not rewarding them the way it did for their dads and granddads, and that now only herculean efforts to make considerably more than women will give them an edge in the mating market.  The male fecklessness…is actually a rational response to a changing sexual market where the rewards of female sexuality go disproportionately to charming, aloof jerks over meager beta providers.” http://outsidethewire.com/content/view/430/14/