Thats the new flyer...
I misspelled movement..
Then I added a website address (still under construction)
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Anyhow...
Went to the movie, and leafleted the crowd before hand. Some like the card some find it offensive.
The movie was pretty much along the lines of what I expected. It wasn't pure misandry - but there were allot of negative stereotypes which I think the film re-enforced. It was about 85% negative 15% positive on the idea of masculinity. Mostly showing what a mess men are in. Which isn't all together a bad thing as the MRM does this all the time, and it's somewhat true.
It was a good opportunity to introduce my group. They even mentioned the MRM but only in a single sentence in what looked like to me a juxtaposition to the KKK.
After the movie I made the comments that the movie had a overwhelming negative portrayal of masculinity as negative and a vice - (even mentioning that it's a public health problem) - and that this view was utterly negative and wrong.
The movie mostly used media stereotypes and attacked media and video games as the root of all evil. Over and over the media was blamed. I brought up the idea that the media isn't God and there are other factors involved and that this was a weakness in the film.
The film over and over equated masculinity with violence... that masculinity IS violence - it did not at all make clear that this is false or that this was a negative portrayal of it - the film simply went over the idea over and over and finally concluding that all masculinity is a farce, a charade and a pose.
I mentioned this to the discussion group afterward and they hit me with their feminist dogma of "all gender is a construct" - I called them down as having a very lopsided and tunnel vision view of social constructs and a ideological blindness - which they put back to me - that I had the same ideological blindness.
I thought about that but didn't have time to respond and finally came up with the conclusion that no - it was not my ideological loyalty that was in conflict with their ideology - it was my direct experience of life itself. I didn't get the opportunity to say that unfortunately.
It had a totally false Domestic Violence stat as it goes into portraying men as the sole violent criminals and people in the world.
Finally it inserts the idea that society should be more suspicious of average looking males because they could just flip-out and start shooting everyone at any time!
I didn't get to make all the comments I wanted post viewing the film, as I had many. But there was a decent discussion and was quite heated I felt. Blatant diverging views but at least decorum.
One of the things I thought was really remarkable was their bringing up the idea of "Cat-Calls" which I suggested was not as disastrous of an event as they felt it is. I got the
STRONGEST of all reactions from my suggestion that "cat-calls" can be viewed in a positive way if one so chooses - Or that it is not harassment at all.
This made me think that perhaps the strongest reaction was simply a reflection of the frontier advancement of feminist ideology. As I recall "Cat-Calls" are now a hot topic which feminists are now demanding some kind of ghetto like measures to prevent offenders to whistle to the horror of passing women.
Anyway I got a chance to promote the group and suggested that more discussion could be ascertained next week if they so choose to attend my group. I'm glad I went - I think it was a good and auspicious moment to initiate the group...
one guy said to my surprise that he had already heard of the group - which was a surprise to me since I had not mentioned it even a day before to anyone on campus - as I gave him a flyer.
