I know I have been rather quiet and absent of late and I apologize for that.
People here have asked, either specifically or in general, why there is such widespread support from so many of Wendy McElroy.
I would like the answer that.
I am so supportive of her because of 2 major reasons:
1) This is why I support her on a personal level: When I was deep in my "I'm a falsely accused guy and no one cares" funk I wrote her a letter and poured out my hurt. This was before I had ANY IDEA there WERE/ARE any men's boards. I was utterly alone. I could not talk to my wife as she didn't understand what I had been through, when I had told people (close friends) it had, invariably, leaked out and the whole "he's a rapist" whispering campaigns began, and I knew of no support apparatus for guys like me.
So, I wrote Wendy a letter. I didn't know she was a syndicated columnist (I don't think she was quite famous yet), I just ran across her site. Now, understand, I had no idea WHO she was or WHAT she stood for. Part of my was a letter of "I dare you to say something you freaking feminist!" in tone, but a lot of it was hoping against hope (as I had been treated quite shabbily by many other women I had confided in) that I would hear FROM A WOMAN that what happened to me was wrong.
The letter I got in return (she didn't have to write me at all, I mean, who was I to her?) was warm, empathetic, and referred me to some men's sites (Men's Activism if memory serves). She showed me I wasn't alone. She told me that what happened to me wasn't my fault. She didn't treat me like shit (as many others HAD) or blame me or ask me "what did you do to piss this woman off?". No, she treated me better than some of my "friends" had.
So, that's why I support her on a personal level.
2) Why I support her as a fair advocate for equality: Many of us know that if a woman doesn't walk in LOCK-STEP with the Feminazis that the woman is ostracized. Wendy is her own person, and, in my opinion, is very equality minded. She's stepped on quite a few feminazi toes, endured smear campaigns while sticking to her guns, and shown a lot of character. She has told me, and no I won't reveal the details, of many personal attacks on her life, her marraige, and her professional career by feminazis. They have sought to destroy her marraige, trick her by E-mail into saying something that can be used against her, and step on her career. Does that sound like a friend of the Fem-Nat'l Socialists?
Do we MRAs agree with all her positions? Hell, we don't always agree with each other! But her writing has highlighted the wrongs done to dads, to men being raped in prison, exposed "cry rape for profit" scams, talked about CEDAW in the U.N., shown how the feminazis use "statistics", exposed how C.P.S. (Child Protective Services) is destroying families, shed light on the true agendas of "womyn's studies" programs, and published other authors who held her views. Wendy has used her columns to print stuff that the mainstream press won't cover. Why .. exactly, are we hating her?! Does she bite as hard as we'd like? I don't know, but that's HER style of writing and no one is going to please everyone, especially when the topics she covers are so freaking controversial to begin with.
Wendy, if she was what most of us MRAs term a "feminist", would tout the party line and be immensely more "popular". But that's not what she does.
It irks a lot of MRAs that she uses the word feminist in a positive manner. I've noticed that. To HER generation, and to her friends the word HAS some redemptive meaning, a root essence of equality. Sure, I know pretty much everyone here has been burned (multiple times myself) by women calling themselves "feminists". That's because the aristocratic "victimologist" harpies who use the word feminist have perverted it and twisted it. Now, before you jump down my throat saying "feminism has always been bad", realize that I am defending the EQUALITY of the idea, not it's present nor past female supremacist ideology.
So there are the reasons I respect, and very much like, Wendy.
I hope I added to the discussion.
Respectfully
Steven