Personally, whenever I see a privileged group claim the need to branch off, I can’t help but be skeptical about whether they just want that “safe space” to justify their own prejudices. Women are overwhelmingly the gender to suffer from sexism and in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when sexism was much more out in the open, women needed a women-only “safe space” so they could unify as activists. What, pray tell, do these supposedly beleaguered men require a similar “safe space” to do? After all, the term “safe space” implies it’s really dangerous out there for you—so what’s with men-only groups, or white-only groups, or Christian-only groups? I wonder if “men’s groups” are just a place to air sour grapes over having to relinquish some of their power and privileges because of feminism, or a place to say sexist and macho things without fear of social reprimand.
Anyone who said such things about women's groups would face "social reprimand", thus showing the author for what she is.
That's alll we do when we get together for church on Sundays, too. It's a big sour grape party. Has nothing to do with, like, Jesus or common interests or anything like that. The secret is out! :p
ReplyDeleteThere are fewer males enrolled in America's colleges than females. Boys are more likely to be channeled into Special education programs, more likely to be arrested and more likely to die as the result of suicide. While there are countless programs for young women to promote and encourage their success, young men-unless they belong to a specific ethnic or religious group-seldom see that kind of support. And whether they like it or not, we do need all of our students to succeed, not just the female students or the minority students. Perhaps such groups would help young men to seek out higher goals than the next party or the next trend.
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