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Are Mens' Rights Ignored to Focus on Womens' Rights?
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⯌Sky⯌ ~take from you like you took from me~, Assistant Moderator
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Aug 28, 2025 06:52AM
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What are mens' rights?Womens' rights does not focus on women having more rights it focuses on women having equal rights.
How are men oppressed?
The only reason we have womens' rights is because we've been oppressed for so long, because grape and sexual harassment is so normalized, because women who worked to get to the top "slept' to the top. If we already had as many rights as men we wouldn't need womens' rights.
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TESSIE wrote: "What are mens' rights?Womens' rights does not focus on women having more rights it focuses on women having equal rights.
How are men oppressed?
The only reason we have womens' rights is because we..."
yeah i agree
men were never the ones being oppressed. we need women's rights because for so long women were being treated poorly, and we still are
now men's mental health is different. i agree that men's mental health is often not addressed well. but there's a difference between the right to vote and being able to express your emotions, if that makes sense
Skybird (Nickname Sky) wrote: "I'm not saying we shouldn't have womens' rights. Way back when, women were not treated as well as they were today. But I think that sometimes the rights of men are neglected and they aren't treated..."i think those are more social norms than they are rights. it's not their "right" to buy women flowers, it's what society expects them to do. i think that's a different conversation
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⯌Sky⯌ ~take from you like you took from me~, Assistant Moderator
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but women do have the same rights as men, in most cases, so why should men be expected to do all those things?
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No they definitely do not have the same rights as men. Women are still oppressed.
When men say women slept their way to the top?
When women are harassed?
Women don’t have complete say over their own bodies?
Women can’t tie their tubes without a man’s approval?
91% of rape victims are women?
To say that women have the same rights as men is incorrect. We’re better, yes, because we have some of our basic human rights, but it’s going back downhill year by year.
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People don’t make men do those things to make up for women’s oppression thats the system that was set up BY men FOR men that men CHOOSE to still follow.
Men are valid for their issues yes but their issues aren’t comparable to what feminists fight for.
Men’s rights issues:
Pressure to bottle feelings
Paying for meals
Buying flowers for women
Have to propose/ask women out first
Women’s rights issues:
Lack of rights over bodily anatomy
Sexual harassment
Rape
Pay differences (I didn’t know how to word this but how women are paid less for the same jobs men do)
Reproductive rights
Domestic violence (73% of dv victims are female)
i agree with soph, those things that men do aren't just their rights. everyone has a right to do those things. its more of what weve normalized though.
soph ₊˚ෆ (joey's version) 🍉 wrote: "TESSIE wrote: "What are mens' rights?Womens' rights does not focus on women having more rights it focuses on women having equal rights.
How are men oppressed?
The only reason we have womens' right..."
THIS! like beating men wasnt normalized back then. their feelings are equally important to womens feelings, but men werent oppressed.
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sexual assault and harrassment towards men is actually often overlooked, 43% of men have been sexually abused (https://www.nsvrc.org/statistics)
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And that’s completely valid! Men should be validated for this, right, but another point is 99% of perpetrators are men.
And there still are people fighting for men’s rights, just there are more feminists than there are men’s rights activists. Why is this? Because 81% of women have experienced harassment and 43% of men have. More women on a day to day basis face sexism and misogyny than men face misandry on a day to day basis.
I heard this story somewhere (I don’t remember a source so you don’t have to count this as a debate thing I just think of the story) of a male rape victim who came out about his experience and more feminists supported him sharing his story than men did.
Feminists don’t focus on women having more rights they focus on everyone having equal rights. Men’s rights movement was actually created in response to feminism. Does this mean men weren’t too worried about their specific rights until women started speaking up about gender inequality?
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honestly i 100% agree with this, i just mean to say that a lot of times feminists forget about men, or sometimes are even deliberately misandrist, and that does happen. i agree with you, real feminists don't focus on women having more rights or anything. it's just important to not forget that
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Understandable!
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Skybird (Nickname Sky) wrote: "ok yeah most of that makes sense. So is everyone on the same page but me?"i honestly agree with you. we shouldnt be using statistics to show who has been oppressed more and who s 'more deserving' of speaking up, because its not fair at all to say that either mens or womens rights are 'more important'. rights are rights and everyone deserves them.
and im not saying oh feminists ignore men, but it has just so happened that mens mental health isnt being acknowledged as much
and yeah women had basically no rights in history but we are working towards equality which is a GOOD THING but the thing people dont get is that things change, and that while we are working towards something good, we tend to neglect other issues. eg a lot of issues have been brought up on social media regarding women (like body positivity, encouraging girls to get into sports/fitness), but its seen as 'weak' by society to speak up as a man because of this culture of toxic masculinity. unfortunately girls are still victims to sa and abuse but the good thing is, we are speaking up about this. this also happens to males too however it's not acknoqldged very much becuse theres 'less cases' and 'more perpertrators are men' which i think is a sick excuse for this issue
wait sorry i got this whole topic the wrong way 😭 if we're talking about legal rights, i think men's rights are pretty well known other than child custody which still is a really big issuebut if youre talking about social rights, i still stand with my point and i also have another random example lmao. nowadays if men say something rude about a girl (eg something about weight) then they'd get called out almost immediately which is obv good.
but women can say all this sht about men online (yk those street interviews that sort of thing), and the mildest thing ive seen is 'if hes not 6ft i dont want him' which basically just translates to 'if shes not skinny i dont want her' for a woman. which is obviously a horrible thing to say, and i think we all (including me)kind of forget that without that comparison.
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but if y..."
exactly!!!! and honestly men do need a lot more rights for a lot of domestic stuff, like do you know how insanely short paternity leave is?
Sai :) wrote: "alice (lana del rey's version) wrote: "wait sorry i got this whole topic the wrong way 😭 if we're talking about legal rights, i think men's rights are pretty well known other than child custody whi..."yes!!! this isnt rly related to the topic but as you said about paternity leave, people say that women deserve more time and that men 'didnt just birth a child' etc etc but like pat leave isnt a holiday.. its literally to support the mom and child..
and these types of laws are also just reinforcing the fact that fathers dont have enoough time in a childs life even from when theyre fresh out of the womb, and tehn they grow up in a way where their mother being their main parental figure while the father is out at work is 'normalised'
I have a friend whose wife physically attacks him. He grabbed her arms to keep her from hitting him, and because of the bruises he was charged with abuse. He was only defending himself.
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One of my brothers ex girlfriend was hitting him and he restrained her back she also hit my niece when she was a little baby but that doesn't give her a right to hit anyone
Domestic violence isn't okay no matter who the perpetrator is or what their gender is. A big problem we do face is that female abusers are commonly found not guilty just because they're found to be less strong and therefore incapable of it, which is extremely incorrect.
The reason i used statistics to show there was more female victims than male victims is because if there are more female victims there are probably more women fighting for the cause. It doesn't make mens' rights insignificant, but again it kinda shows stuff... mens' rights weren't created until womens' rights were, and it was a response to actually try and silence women. And even here there are more women fighting for mens rights then there are men.
As for comparing bodies and such, in my personal opinion that falls into more of a sexism thing, than a mens rights thing. When i think womens rights i think the the actual rights that are being taken from women because of sexism. Thats online harassment and in no way okay but is it really rights?
You guys seem to kinda be taking it as 'are feminists sexist'. You know what, yeah, a lot are. But the feminist movement isn't, its not 'women need more rights than men' its that they need EQUAL RIGHTS.
Men should have paternity leave yes, but i think that is a problem we face after we give women longer paternity leaves because they are the ones just pushing a human out of their vagina. Yes men do face a lot of stress from it, but women do face more, and i am sorry if that sounds sexist. I'm not trying to be but at the end of the day, women can die from birth and post-mortem complications.
And another thing is speaking up about a lot of things is seen as being weak as a man, i've never met a women put down a man for self care. I've met men who do that, but its the men doing it to themselves that need to be changed. Collectively as women we can only change so much about men's social patterns they set up for themselves. Its shouldn't be overlooked but please take into account that its doen by other men, not women.
Also i think thats more of a collective mental health thing that needs attention, and not... rights.
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Barnette ⋆˙⟡ (my girlfriend's version), Creator, Head Moderator
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A big problem we do face is that female abusers are commonly found not guilty just because they're found to b..."
Well said Tessie!!
TESSIE wrote: "Domestic violence isn't okay no matter who the perpetrator is or what their gender is. A big problem we do face is that female abusers are commonly found not guilty just because they're found to b..."
I agree with what you're saying, just on the paternity leave thing - no one says that pat leave is supposed to be a holiday or break for men, the point is to SUPPORT the mother and child (e.g. looking after the baby when the mom is resting, helping around the house). yes women do die from possible post-mortem complications, and support and help is really important for new moms at this vulnerable time. the whole point of having a man/partner at home with them is for the mom to have support when they need
As far as I’m aware the only “men’s rights” that vary by state is the “right” to marry a child. There is no systemic oppression of men, so I don’t think men’s rights should be a major issue right now. People are literally dying so apologies for not really caring about the (mostly self inflicted) “male loneliness epidemic”
livi (the life of a showgirl ❤️🔥) wrote: "As far as I’m aware the only “men’s rights” that vary by state is the “right” to marry a child. There is no systemic oppression of men, so I don’t think men’s rights should be a major issue right n..."exactly, idk what y'all are talking about when you say men's rights are being ignored, bc they're literally not?? y'know who's rights are being ignored? women, the lgbtq+ community, and anyone who's not white lmao, so forgive me if i don't really care whether paternity leave should be longer
alice (lana del rey's version) wrote: "TESSIE wrote: "Domestic violence isn't okay no matter who the perpetrator is or what their gender is. A big problem we do face is that female abusers are commonly found not guilty just because the..."
and thats great and should be addressed, but its not top priority when women are still trying to acheive rights over their own bodies.
i get what you guys are saying, but i also wanted to mention that we can't achieve full gender equality without BOTH men's and women's rights, and a lot of women's rights are affected by men's. for example a few people have mentioned the gender pay gap. it has in fact been shown by multiple studies that discrimination, which is illegal in many countries, (paying two people of the same job a different wage), does happen but contributes VERY LITTLE to the pay gap. the pay gap is actually calculated by the average earnings of men, compared to that of women, and as you probably know, this widely varies however men often have higher earnings, but the main cause for this is actually because of childbirth, maternity leave and a MOTHER often not being able to work full-time after having a child. overall mothers earn a much lower percenage than everyone else, and surprisingly women who are not mothers are statistically shown to not be affected by the gender pay gap (so baiscally around the same earnings as men). even though some women do choose to stop work to look after their children, this shows that the root cause of this pay gap is that mothers are stuck at home while men keep working, keep getting promotions, trying to 'provide for their family', which ultimately just fuels and continues the divide between mens and womens earnings. this is where men's rights come into play - you might not think this is important but paternity leave is SO mcuh shorter than maternity leave, and not only is it important for men's mental health, but a longer pat leavve & more mens rights (specifically child rights and custody) will have a MUCH much more positive impact on womens'. iceland has actually worked on reducing the gender pay gap, and they have extended paternity leave and promote fathers being an active figure in their child's life. in doing this, they are able to balance the roles in the family, so that both the mother and father are able to look after the child, as well as work and earn pretty much even rates.
so yeah, i think that mens rights largely affect womens' which is why, even though we may think that we should 'priorotise' womens rights, we can't do that without looking at gender equality as a whole (which.. includes men)
i think a lot of ‘men’s rights’ are more human rights than just men’s rights. like paternity leave, maternity leave is also not very high and it doesn’t even really exist in sole places. that seems like more of an issue that involves BOTH men and women and can also be traced back to the belief that women are caregivers, and therefore men do not need time with the child since women are expected to take care of the child and household immediately after giving birth. though, paternity leave does need to be longer.
but i feel like men’s rights and more specifically, men’s mental health, is more of a social issue rather than a political issue.
TESSIE wrote: "alice (lana del rey's version) wrote: "TESSIE wrote: "Domestic violence isn't okay no matter who the perpetrator is or what their gender is. A big problem we do face is that female abusers are com..."
yes women's bodily rights may be prioritised, but does that make other issues (including other things that impact women like literally the raising of their child) any less important?
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A big problem we do face is that female abusers are commonly found not guilty just because they're found to b..."
yess
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fo..."
wait i actually agree with this so much, women's workload definitely increases more than a man's after having a child, bc they're often the ones who take time out for domestic things, whether or not they want to (some want to, obviously, but actually a lot don't either, they just do the work bc their husbands aren't)
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exactly!
sieraqvt🇻🇳 semi-ia (school) wrote: "i think a lot of ‘men’s rights’ are more human rights than just men’s rights. like paternity leave, maternity leave is also not very high and it doesn’t even really exist in sole places. that seems..."exactly what im trying to say, these rights affect both women and men however we're labelling them as only womens issues and ignoring the other aspects of it
also yeah there is a very strong stigma of women being caregivers but those are the sorts of traditional views that are (or should be) very different today. i really think there should be a cultural shift that promotes fathers being a key role in a child's life as well as more mothers in the workplace, because in reality, caregiving is a responsibility for BOTH parents (also think about single fathers). a father isn't any less of a parent/carer than a mother. and even if a mother is the main caretaker, the father needs to be there to support& help the mom and kid (sorry i have said that point way too many times but its important).'men do not need time with the child since women are expected to take care of the child and household immediately after giving birth,' however realistically this is really unfair, the expectation for women to recover from childbirth on their own while simultaneously managing all the household responsibilities too. this is also kind of contradictory with the other claim about men not needed that much pat leave because women go through so much harship and men dont.?
also about men not needing that much time with their children, i strongly believe that BOTH parents need to be equally present in their children's life. by not doing this we are just reinforcing the stereotype that men are unecessary in a child's early life which directly impacts child development and emotional bonding in the long run
sorry those thoughts are all over the place but i hope you get what i mean
and how this relates to men's rights - my main claim is that if we want to achieve full gender equality, we have to address, in depth, the rights of ALL genders. just because the issues of one gender are smaller or seem less important, doesnt mean that we can ignore them or the fact that these are also the rights that impact all of us so greatly
TESSIE wrote: "Domestic violence isn't okay no matter who the perpetrator is or what their gender is. A big problem we do face is that female abusers are commonly found not guilty just because they're found to b..."
about comparing bodies being online harrassment, but not being a right - is it not a right to feel comfortable in your own body? to not have your body be picked apart by strangers because 'theyre tough and can deal with it'? obviously, the rates of sa towards women are much much higher than mens, and often more severe, but rights are still rights. yes, we need to focus more on women's physical rights and bodily autonomy than men but that doesn't mean we can ignore any of mens' if we really want to achieve gender equality
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fo..."
That’s really interesting!
Again, men should have longer paternity leaves I agree with that. What I don’t agree with is that it’s completely overlooked or should be handled before bodily rights such as the right to abortion and tying women’s tubes is.
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A big problem we do face is that female abusers are commonly found not guilty just because the..."
Okay, I see that. But at the end I mentioned how a lot of the time it’s MEN pushing down their own gender. Women’s rights is to have the same amount of rights as men, men’s rights should be to have the same amount of rights as women. But if it’s a right they’re fighting for against themselves, I think it should be a mental health thing we NEED to focus on. It is still important and should be addressed.
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But the thing is, men started out with pretty much all rights. To be equal what do we need to work on with men? Sexual assault, violent assault, and paternity leave? Yes, important issues, but it doesn’t get overlooked, it’s being addressed even here. I’d like to see a man debate here, genuinely. Because I’m pretty sure I’m debating against women, who are saying that men’s rights should be just as or (just from the way yall are putting it not in a men’s way) more important than women’s rights and I disagree. I don’t think either are more important, but I do think women’s rights should be addressed first.
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PREACH
Tessie wrote: "alice (lana del rey's version) wrote: "and how this relates to men's rights - my main claim is that if we want to achieve full gender equality, we have to address, in depth, the rights of ALL gende..."no, i or i dont think anyone else has said that men's rights are more important than women's. my whole case is that everyone's rights are equal, and yes i agree with you that women's rights should be addressed first. and the good thing is, they are, and we are working towards a better world in terms of womens bodily autonomy in many countries, and there are so many worldwide organisations that support this like UNFPA. this is really great and we definitely still need to continue with this but in doing so, we have sort of been ignoring mens' rights that are so important in achieving gender equality
i completely agree with your second point about women's bodily rights needing to be addressed first. BUT about 'mens' rights not being overlooked' - the reason why we are even bringing up these issues in the first place is because they actually ARE being dismissed. look on social media - for every 50 womens' body positivity post, there's one for men. actually, recently i havent been seeing ANY men's mental health content or gender equality as a whole, really, and thats saying something because im too chronically online for my own good. also, i wanted to bring out that many people on here didn't know much about paternity leave and assumed it was only for the man's mental health, and this just shows that IF all of us as a community, including myself, are not aware of and acknowledging the role of a literal father in his child's life, how are we going to reach gender equality? im not saying anything about us as individual people, and i myself also need to be eduated more on this topic, but as a society we should first try to understand what exaclty is prohibiting gender equality and what we can do to get there from BOTH sides for both men and women
and yes, i'd also like to see men debating on this topic here, that wou;d be really interesting
Tessie wrote: "alice (lana del rey's version) wrote: "TESSIE wrote: "Domestic violence isn't okay no matter who the perpetrator is or what their gender is. A big problem we do face is that female abusers are com..."
that's a really interesting point, but i think both genders are contributing towards pushing down men's rights. yes, there is a horible culture of toxic masculinity and a lot of this is initiated by other men, but this is exactly what im trying to say - we all, INCLUDING men, need to step up to talk about this. 'its the men doing it to themselves that need to be changed,' i completely agree with this, but are we just going to say okay you guys need to change and just leave it like that? and im not saying it should be just the women saying this, im saying that men THEMSELF also has to bring up their own issues too. and creating by a society where there is no judgement or insecurities, i think that would really help.
also about women not putting down men, i've seen a lot of it but then again, it seems really subtle because society has sort of normalised it. youve probably heard of things like 'i want him over 6ft' 'hes too skinny he cant even carry me' 'being fit is the bare minimum.' by no means am i saying that these expectations are as severe as women's. but im saying that this sort of thing is so prevalent today to the point where we are normalising it.
we need to continue fighting for women's rights, i really do think we need to do more, but at least as a collective can we take some small steps towards men's rights as well? and not only will this impact men but WOMEN and gender equality as a whole, because if we get rid of this toxic masculinity and expectations for men, it will help women with a lot of the issues we struggle with too.
give men the right to be comfortable in their own body, to show their emotions, to be weak and vulnerable, to not have to be seen as 'macho' or 'tough'. if men don't have to be forced into these boxes, then, i think, this will create a society where women won't be pushed into being inferior or submissive either. this will then just start the domino effect towards women's actual rightsand as emma watson said in her HeforShe speech, 'If men don't have to control, women won't have to be controlled.'
Sai :) wrote: "alice (lana del rey's version) wrote: "i get what you guys are saying, but i also wanted to mention that we can't achieve full gender equality without BOTH men's and women's rights, and a lot of wo..."thank you !
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You say ‘for every 50 feminist post there’s 1 men’s rights post’ (not those exact words sorry but the same message I think) but that was my point in one of my debates… women are lifting other women because it happens so much to them. There should be more men uplifting men. But if this stuff women are pointing out about men’s rights, men don’t see, I don’t get it.
You’re seeing it as there’s not enough about men’s rights and maybe you’re right. But if no men are posting or sharing about it (this is aside from rape that should be handled and I understand the pressure both men and women are put under to come out about that stuff) why aren’t they?
And not in a rude way at all but all I’m hearing is the paternity leave. Yes, men go through domestic abuse and rape too, but you keep telling me about paternity leave.
Fathers do play a huge hole in a child’s life and yes they should be granted longer leaves, I never said it was for his mental health either.
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A big problem we do face is that female ..."
How are women pushing down men’s rights? You are a woman currently fighting for men’s rights. Again more women seem to be concerned about men’s rights than men do.
And exactly what you said, the horrible culture of toxic masculinity. That’s what the men’s mental health part is. And it’s men who play the main role in toxic masculinity. Maybe you’re right we should do more. But what exactly?
As for those things about men… I’ve honestly never heard of any of those. Except yes I’ve heard women say they want their man tall. Not a specific height but tall. And I’ve heard men say they want a short woman, a woman with a fat ass, a woman with big boobs, a woman with the hair color of their preference, thin waist, thick thighs or a thigh gap, big lips…
When I see women posting about what they want in a man what I’ve seen is someone who’s kind and will open doors or give her attention or ‘princess treatment’. When I see women’s posts about ‘bare minimum’ it’s about communication. I think communication is a fair bare minimum.
And I think it’s okay for a man to want a woman with blonde hair and a thin figure, fine. It’s okay for a woman to want a tall thick man. But those are personal preferences and what’s not okay is putting people down for not being attractive to that person. I’ve personally never heard or seen a women tell a man he’s chopped or he’s ugly or really anything of that sort. ‘Short kings’ is so normalized now! But I’ve heard men tell women they’re chopped or ugly or they need a nose job etc…
I agree we could take steps towards men’s rights. You’re right there. I think if it’s overlooked though, men need to be taking those steps before us.
