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MHRM blogs and forums often see posts from women self identifying as feminists who object to the characterisation among MHRAs that feminism is not interested in equality and that it is in fact an anti-male movement.  There are many women in the community who profess to support gender equality and openly call themselves feminists.  It is reasonable to conclude that the majority of women who make this claim are honest in their belief.  This article is intended to respond to those queries.

Opinions among MHRAs differ about whether feminism was ever a movement interested in gender equality but the overwhelming belief is that if it ever was, it isn't any more.

The very name of the movement gives a clue about its real aims.  The early founders of this movement could have given the movement a gender-neutral name such as ''Egalitarianism'' but they didn't.  They named the movement for one gender.  They called it feminism.  This name immediately indicates that this movement is for women rather than being for gender equality.

Regardless, most MHRAs are concerned about modern (third wave) feminism rather than historical feminism.

== Denying men's issues ==

Attempts to bring legitimate men's issues in to conversations with feminists are often with met with derision and dismissal.<ref>http://www.feministcritics.org/blog/2011/06/23/seriously-what-about-the-menz-noh/</ref>

== Sexism ==

The feminist definition of sexism explicitly excludes the possibility that women can be sexist.

This is the defintion of sexism from the feminist blog ''finallyfeminism101.workpress.com'':<ref>http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/sexism-definition/</ref>

 Sexism is both discrimination based on gender and the attitudes, stereotypes, and the cultural elements that promote this 
 discrimination. Given the historical and continued imbalance of power, where men as a class are privileged over women as a 
 class (see male privilege), an important, but often overlooked, part of the term is that sexism is prejudice plus power.
 Thus feminists reject the notion that women can be sexist towards men because women lack the institutional power that men have.

In contrast ''dictionary.com'' defines sexism as:<ref>http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sexism?s=t</ref>

 sex·ism  [sek-siz-uhm]
 noun
 1. attitudes or behavior based on traditional stereotypes of sexual roles.
 2. discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex, as in restricted job opportunities; especially, such discrimination 
    directed against women.

The definition of sexism used by feminists is itself inherently sexist by drawing a distinction on the basis of gender.  The dictionary definition presented here is still not gender neutral it should be clear that it at least accepts the possibility that women can be sexist.

== Patriarchy theory ==

== Silencing opposition ==

The activities of feminists at the University of Toronto to attempt to shut down a conference on men's human rights are now legendary.  The feminists formed a crowd outside of the building hosting the conference and yelled and jostled people who tried to get in.<ref>http://www.joshuakennon.com/the-warren-farrell-protest-at-the-university-of-toronto/</ref>  They also illegally activated a fire alarm in the building to force all of the conference participants to leave the building and thus disrupt the conference.

http://www.macleans.ca/education/uniandcollege/a-mens-rights-advocate-spoke-at-the-university-of-toronto/

Shutdown of men's program at University of South Australia.

== References ==

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