- Instead of forming a physical wall preventing those interested in civil discussion from getting to a talk...
- Instead of calling us rape apologists, rape supporters, rapists, and perverts...
- Instead of violently assaulting people attending the talk, neutral journalists, and the cops trying to protect us...
- Instead of screaming at all of us that we perpetuate rape culture...
- Instead of yelling that a centre dedicated to the gendered issues that males face in school is a danger to all women in the university...
- Instead of claiming that we are all sexist, homophobic, racist, horrible and evil people...
...consider actually joining in the conversation.
Yesterday, November 16th, 2012, at the Medical Sciences Building of University of Toronto, Dr Warren Farrell held a talk focused on why boys are dropping out of school more, failing school more, applying for school less, committing suicide at higher rates, etc. This talk was not an anti-feminist speech in the least.
Once we finally got to start the talk (over an hour late, due to the blockade), Warren praised feminism and the womens rights movement in 5 separate occasions. He delivered a message of peace, compassion, love, and interest in our society's boys. By all accounts, he was undeserving of all of the hate he received outside. He is a caring, soft-spoken man, and he did his best to answer any question that were asked of him.
If any of you had the patience to actually listen to what he had to say, you'd have felt like fools. When I was denied entry by those of you linking arms, I was able to talk to many of you. With almost every single point I made about mens issues, we reached agreement - but you insisted that any discussion of male issues outside of what feminism allows is hate speech, and firmly believed that you should be able to stop us from taking part.
Just because there are more of you, and you are stronger and louder, does not mean what you are doing is right.
If you want feminism to remain as a movement for equality, you seriously might want to reconsider your anti-male stances. And before anyone here claims "Not all feminists are like that", I'm not saying that they are. But I am saying that these people identify themselves with a term that you hold dear. If you are letting them take feminism and twist it into a violently sexist movement of oppression and censorship, as we saw yesterday, then that's on you, not on us.
I know many of you who were there truly believe in equality. Take a second and actually consider what you are standing for when you protest a conversation simply because boys are the focus and not girls. It is both hilarious and sad that we have come to this.
