Feminists claim that the men's and fathers' movement is riddled with woman-haters. They're wrong, but certainly not completely wrong, and below is an excellent example. It was posted on one of the major men's sites. Out of respect for their founder and his work, I won't name the site.

The news/blog entry was written by "MrReality" and is called "Blood Diamonds: How women fund the enslavement of black men and boys." MrReality bases some of his assumptions on this article, and writes:

"For years one of the biggest of fantasies for women has been the wedding. A much bigger fantasy though is what comes as a result of the wedding: A large diamond ring. Let's be honest, how many times have you seen women meet 'the bride' right after the wedding and say 'Let me see the ring!' The wife then flutters he hand around the misandric circle of women showing off her blood diamond.

"The sad truth is that African MEN are forced into slavery in order for the new wife (a member of the royal sex) to walk around and showcase her new diamond. Which many times means more to her than the marriage itself.

"How many times have you heard women claim they wish they could have 'kept the ring' once they divorced the husband. It has recently been proven that all diamonds are in-fact 'conflict diamonds' and thus any woman that nags her soon-to-be schmuck husband for one is a slave-master, just like her sisters. I would advise that no man buy a woman a diamond."

There are so many anti-woman distortions in this article that it's hard to know where to start. MrReality's first assumption is that western women who want diamonds are creating the horrendous conditions in the diamond mines of Africa. But the consumer doesn't create the conditions under which a product is produced--the company producing it does. What African diamond miners need is not a boycott of diamonds but instead a strong labor union. In South Africa, black labor unions--particularly the miners' union--were powerful, improved conditions for workers, and helped bring down apartheid.

In MrReality's mind, when a bride shows off her ring it's a "blood diamond" and when a group of women admire her diamond they are "misandric" (anti-male). Women--whom MrReality dubs women "the royal sex" and "slave masters"--apparently don't care about their marriages, only their diamonds. These assumptions are bigoted and unfair.

I wrote about the problem of misogyny in the men's movement in my column Confronting Woman-Bashing In the Men's Movement (iFeminists.com, 4/2/02).

This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 12:05 am and is filed under Feminism/NOW, Sexism, Misogyny, Men's Movement, Gender Issues (Misc.), Men, Women and Work, Family Court Reform Movement. You can trackback from your own site.