June 10, 2011
A friend of mine in the Men's Rights Movement recently contacted me, concerned about a conversation that took place in the Men's Rights group on social news aggregator site reddit.com. He expressed dismay at the apparent perception of "Men Going Their Own Way", both as a group and as a philosophy within the Men's Rights community at large. Specifically, criticism was levelled at a site called MGTOWForums for use of overly-vulgar language in one of their front page articles. The assertion was also made that MGTOW, practically applied, tends towards "misogyny".
Ignoring for now that reddit's Men's Rights subreddit is not representative of the movement at large, I thought for a while about how to respond both to his message, and to the critics, and the more times I turned the matter around in my head, the more disappointed I became.
The fact is, Going Their Own Way is something that men decide to do individually. It is a loosely-binding philosophy that means different things to different men, and makes no assertions as to what, precisely, a man Going His Own Way should be expending his energy on. Like Anonymous, those subscribing to the minimalist philosophy of MGTOW have no leader, no central authority and no united goals. The original manifesto simply seeks to help instill masculinity in men, femininity in women and establish and maintain independence for men living within society.
Any individual can choose to self-identify as MGTOW. Any group of people or website can choose to affiliate themselves with the basic ideology of MGTOW. This makes pointing at one article, or forum or individual and proclaiming them to be representative of the ideology as a whole not only dishonest, but a pointless waste of time - the philosophy must stand on its own, or fail in the marketplace of ideas. I personally believe it is the only idea with a chance of succeeding in creating a post-feminist society, as organised, heirarchical ideology is an anathema to free men.
Even as men start to walk away from a society that demands everything from them and gives nothing in return, feminists keep trying to find ways to expand their own power and extract money from the government purse. When the trickle of productive men leaving becomes a flood, there won't be anybody leading them. Rather, each Man Going His Own Way will simply and silently fade from view, until the cheerleaders for feminism find themselves without anybody upon which to foist their obnoxious demands.
To focus on the presentation of one author who has committed to Going His Own Way, or the disdain of some of his fellows for women, completely misses the point of MGTOW. So what if you disagree with another man's point of view? Go Your Own Way! So what if you don't want to be associated with him? MGTOW is not a club or a religion. Leave other men to their business, help them if your conscience demands it, and demand equitable treatment from the men and women you meet.
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