What is up with "Meninism" in our schools?

The Code Yellow at Columbia yesterday has prompted me to create an account here to ask a question that has been bothering me for a couple years now ...

A few years ago, sometime around 7th grade, my daughter (burgeoning feminist, to be sure) would sometimes come home from school complaining about boys in her class calling themselves "Meninists" - a term I had never heard previously - but that I quickly understood to be synonymous with "Men's Rights"/anti-feminism. Over the years, I've been kind of shocked by how often I hear about various boys identifying with this movement and getting in arguments with the feminists at school. I thought the civilized world had moved beyond such inanity by now - especially in progressive Maplewood-South Orange!

Looking at this disturbed child's horrifying Instagram account yesterday brought all of this to a whole new level for me, especially considering that a few of the mass shooters in recent years (and all these GamerGate harassers) have identified with this "Men's Rights" thing. 

It makes me want to ask other parents in the district: has anyone else noticed this trend? Any sense of how widespread it is? Is this something that needs to be brought out into the open more and, if so, what can we do about it?

At a certain level boys will be boys, and as children do, they will grow out of it.

Which "mass shooters in recent years have identified with this 'Men's Rights' thing?"

What does the CHS kid screaming for attention have to do with this?

they need to come up with a better name because meninism makes me think of amish people.

holymoly said:
they need to come up with a better name because meninism makes me think of amish people.

Or antiperspirant

This is the most obvious one, ParticleMan:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/05/27/inside-the-manosphere-that-inspired-santa-barbara-shooter-elliot-rodger/

ParticleMan said:
Which "mass shooters in recent years have identified with this 'Men's Rights' thing?"
What does the CHS kid screaming for attention have to do with this?

well, his Instagram account was pretty much the definition of Meninist "thinking", if you read through it.

I wonder how sociopaths and pyschopaths justified their actions before we had an ism for any occasion.

A sociopath or psychopath is often drawn to a fringe group that supplies an outlet for their feelings of hatred, feeling disenfranchised, shut out and victimized. Mass shooters are often aligned with a hate or fringe group, it gives them a "rational" reason for their rage. White supremacy has been the "justification" for many murders, some anti-feminists, and so on.

The sociopath/psychopath/shooter part of it is, of course, the extreme end of it. And I am interested and concerned about that. I am also wondering, though, about the mere existence of this odious "philosophy" that has apparently (to me, at least) found it's way into the minds of some of the boys in our towns. 

Maybe this is just how you rebel in a mostly-progressive community? Or  is it  something deeper  and darker? Is  this an area where tolerance education in our school district is falling short?

Men's Rights groups scare the hell out of me in the same way White Power groups do.

a couple of observations: We aren't always the enlightened community we love to tell the world we are. We are talking about boys I think, not men.

Drygioni said:
The sociopath/psychopath/shooter part of it is, of course, the extreme end of it. And I am interested and concerned about that. I am also wondering, though, about the mere existence of this odious "philosophy" that has apparently (to me, at least) found it's way into the minds of some of the boys in our towns. 
Maybe this is just how you rebel in a mostly-progressive community? Or  is it  something deeper  and darker? Is  this an area where tolerance education in our school district is falling short?

I'm pretty sure this is something deeper and darker - a sickness in our fair towns.

Either that or some boys are winding up an outspoken feminist.

Or a handful of kids are carrying on like this and it isn't worth a second thought.

hankzona said:
We are talking about boys I think, not men.

Unfortunately they are growing up and there is a fairly vigorous Men's Rights movement made up of adults who will happily reinforce their beliefs.  While some of these young men will grow out of these beliefs, plenty won't. 

It's always easiest if you can blame someone else for your own problems.  As women continue to make strides in closing the gender gap, there will be men who are all to willing to attribute their own problems to women somehow getting an "unfair advantage." When what's really happening is the unfair advantage my gender has enjoyed for centuries is getting eliminated. 

It's easy to misconstrue the loss of an arbitrary privilege as an attack. I think that's what's going on with Meninists.

Ah the wonders of MOL. On one thread we live in Lake Woebegone and every kid is gifted and talented and then you move on to another thread and it is the Village of the Damned.

my point was that as anyone (Im really referring to myself) begins to consider this post, I think its important for anyone (once again me) to keep in mind that the conversation started by the OP is about boys in our community.

My other thoughts, without having formulated an opinion, but really observations from having been in and around the schools since we are talking about adolescents, whether they be pre-teens or teens, is that girls on average seem to be way ahead of boys in performance and maturity. Yes there are plenty of exceptions, but I can still remember the MMS awards assemblies where it seemed at least 3/4 of the students getting awards were female. Again in many cases, the typical girl seems more mature than the typical boy (once again there are plenty of exceptions). Are some boys feeling marginalized? Are some feeling marginalized and happen to be troubled on top of that? Is there an adolescent gender gap in our community that skews opposite of what we know to be factual and wrong on an adult level? In other communities? If the undergraduate population of colleges is roughly 57-43% female to male, maybe it is an issue that is both local and broader. And my thinking out loud is specifically referring to adolescents. I am fully aware of the history and statistics on gender inequality for adults.

This reminds me of all the warring Twitter(?) accounts last year -- DearWhiteColumbia, etc.  It went on and on.

Meninists? Ok, it rhymes with feminist, but linguistically shouldn't it be masculist?  who's going to let the boys know? 

The proper term should be masculinism.  Not to be confused with Mescalinism.  Totally different group.