I came across a post that talked about this app. It's an app designed in the name of "female empowerment" by letting women endorse other guys they deem to be good to their other single friends.

And the guys on the app? They're immediately told to be on their "best behaviour" and if they do so, they'll earn rewards and points. This bit I find very condescending and not to mention misandric as it doesn't mention any toxic behaviour that women do. It also gives off the vibes of the "Toronto Unhinged list" or "Are we dating the same guy." list as well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hulah You can check it out yourselves here.

Dating is already hard enough for men out there, and this app will only make it needlessly harder. I wouldn't be surprised if this app attracts only the feminist types as they're the ones screeching about safety (Note: due to the expectation of men to initiate most things in dating and sometimes resorting to toxic methods to do so, I can understand women's need to be safe in these interactions especially if a man can't handle rejection, but I think the scale of safety is being inflated when you have apps or list like these.)

What are your thoughts on it? Do you think this app is a great idea to keep women safe or is it just another discriminatory practice against men and males?

#men

I think the video above is the most good faith summation of the gym Bro subculture and how it's evolved over the years. It stands out to me particularly as I believe the majority of commentary and criticisms from the outside of the gymbro subculture are filled with weird claims that gymBros are inherently tied to alt-right or that fitness cultures are what's leading men from embracing the positive potential of therapy and so on.

There's value in exploring this subculture for all it has to offer as I think it's one of the few spaces unreservedly dedicated to the well-being and lessons men need to improve and enjoy their lives.

There is a tendency among some academics to prescribe individual solutions to systemic problems, when those problems are men's problems. For example, Diprete and Buchman, sociologists, in chapter 6 of the book “The Rise of Women: the growing gender gap in education and what it means for American schools.” Write that boys get worse grades than girls because they have lower emotional attachment to school than girls do because male adolescent role models like Batman and James Bond don’t emphasize academic success, which fosters an adolescent male culture that is oppositional to school. The solutions that they propose in the conclusion to the chapter is for parents to provide their sons with information about the relationship between academic success and financial success and provide them with emotional rewards for academic success and for fathers to role model good study habits and ways of achieving financial success and masculinity through academic success to their sons. Andrew Reiner, who teaches men’s studies at Towson university in Maryland, says that men don’t go to other men for emotional support because male heroes in popular culture don’t do that. But that causes mental health problems for men. So he prescribes men to discuss what about masculinity to change with their male friends and for men to write about the emotions they experienced in the past, along with other recommendations for men. https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-be-a-man-who-has-inner-strength-and-emotional-resilience But what is missing from both accounts, is addressing the source of the problem. If the problem is the role models that boys and men see in the media don’t exhibit the behaviors that are necessary for them to thrive, then the solution is to change those role models. Telling individual men and families to change is just passing the buck. Those role models did not always exist. Someone created them on purpose. They can be changed. Is there something obvious that I am missing? Is it just impossible to make healthy and positive male role models profitable in fiction?

#men

###Article 21: Right to partake in public affairs

Everyone has the right to take part in their country’s political affairs and equal access to public service. Governments should be voted for regularly.

• Public services are often designed for women and exclude men
• The women's lobbying industry seeks to exclude men and men's human rights issues from public discourse and government decision making processes
• There are very few government arms anywhere in the world (including at the U.N.) dedicated to the health and wellbeing of men

A great example of this is the public research funding bias that focuses on women's health, as well as medical services that are not offered to men, despite men being in poorer health and not living as long as women. Another example are victims services which in many cases simply do not exist at all for men.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. We should not forget about men when proposing and implementing publicly funded services
2. We need to establish government offices that focus on male issues and concerns

###Article 22: Right to social security

Society should help individuals to freely develop and make the most of all advantages offered in their country.

• As noted in several previous sections, men are often excluded from public services and benefits
• Gender stereotypes against men prevent them from participating in many important areas of society, including domestic life, education, childcare, and public discourse

Men are often limited to their role in constructing and maintaining society, but are not included in the benefits that this construction and maintenance affords to others.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Efforts should be made to better include men in publicly offered benefits and services
2. Efforts should be made to include men in all aspects of society instead of limiting them to predetermined roles consisting of labor, construction, and maintaince

###Article 23: Right to work

Everyone has the right to work in just and favourable conditions and be free to choose your work with a salary that allows you to live and support family. Everyone should receive equal pay for equal work.

• Men work in less favorable conditions than women and make up well over 90% of occupational deaths and occupational related injuries and health conditions
• Men work longer hours than women in order to support themselves and their families

This one has obvious relevance to existing men's rights discussions around working conditions and work-life balance.

The second bullet point intersects with the active transfer of property from men to women that was discussed in previous sections.

Even if we ignore the human rights questions around alimony and child support, this article would still be relevant because a man should be able to earn enough money to pay for those obligations to support his "family" and also support himself. Many men who are forced to transfer property to women live in abject poverty despite earning decent incomes on paper (a problem that creates biases in statistics and research about poverty).

Many separated fathers want to voluntarily provide support for their children, and be involved to a greater degree than society currently allows. But the economy often prevents them from being able to contribute financially. What makes this worse is that many child support and alimony laws were created decades ago when the economy allowed for a single parent to support an entire family, which means that child support obligations at the time did not create as large of a burden for separated fathers as they do today.

Anther note is that the ability for a single parent to be able to provide for an entire family seems to be a human rights issue on it's own according to this article.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. We need to improve working conditions, pay, and work-life balance

###Article 24: Right to leisure and rest

Each work day should not be too long and everyone has the right to rest and take regular paid holidays.

• Men spend less time outside of work than women do
• Men spend less time relaxing, less time taking naps, and less time sleeping than women do
• Men have less time for leisure and rest even when you include domestic work and childcare

Much like Article 23, this implies that we need to pay people better so that we can spend less time working.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. We need to work on reducing the amount of time men spend laboring to support themselves and their families

###Article 25: Right to adequate standard of living

You have the right to have what you need so that you and your family do not go hungry, homeless or fall ill.

• Men are significantly more likely than women to be homeless, hungry, and destitute
• Men receive less funding and care for their health than women do at basically every level of society
• The amount of labor men perform for other people often prevents them from taking care of themselves and receiving preventative medical treatment
• Men die younger than women and are in worse health in almost every nation on the planet

This is another article that has obvious relevance for many traditional men's rights issues.

The pressures to work longer hours at jobs that provide less time off makes it difficult for men to take care of their health and receive preventative medical care. Governments also spend much more money on women's health than men's health, despite men being in poorer health and dying younger than women.

Men are also more likely to be homeless and destitute.

One interesting thing I saw in this article is a statement granting special status for women and children:

Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance.

I have not looked at the original declaration or studied the theory behind it, but I imagine this is because pregnant and nursing mothers do actually need special care and assistance for biological reasons, as do children.

The only place where a note like this was included was in this article, so the context is specific to this article. It does not establish that women and children are more important than men or that their human rights supercede a man's human rights. I think at most this implies a need for general welfare specific to women and children that do not otherwise apply to men, and is not meant to affirm traditional gender roles from men towards women such as providership or protection. Since those gender roles frequently get abused to infringe on the human rights of men, we need to work on dismantling them instead of making excuses for them.

Moreover, if this article is used to justify the enforcement of traditional male gender roles, I believe that Article 29 (discussed later) would impose complementary gender roles and obligations onto women as well. This mirrors conversations that question the relationship between rights and obligations.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. We need to work on safety nets and make sure that men aren't falling through the cracks
2. We need to work on facilitating better health, wellness, and support for men, women, and children in society

###Article 26: Right to education

You have the right to go to school, continue your studies as far as you wish and learn regardless of race, religion or country of origin.

• Men have been falling behind in all levels of education for decades
• Education has been reformed over the years to cater to women and this has been partially responsible for male underachievement
• All levels of the education system have been demonstrated to discriminate against men
• Men receive lower marks for identical work
• Men are more likely to be punished for identical behaviors
• Men have been shown to suffer from a stereotype bias in education
• Men do not receive male specific affirmative action or support for these shortfalls, and many people continue to believe that it is actually women who need extra help

This is another big one that men's activists have been talking about for a really long time.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. We need to investigate male underachievement and enact positive policy reform on these issues
2. We need to care about male underachievement and acknowledge that work needs to be done here
3. We need to put an end to systemic and institutionalized discrimination against men in the education system which only make these problems worse

###Article 27: Right to take part in cultural, artistic and scientific life

You have the right to share the benefits of your community’s culture, arts and sciences.

• Men are stereotyped as not being creative
• Masculinity and masculine hobbies are stereotyped as boring, uncool, and sometimes as dangerous and harmful
• Men are stereotyped in media representations as ignorant, incapable, selfish, malicious, and villainous

I don't see many issues here despite the list of bullet points. The main issue is probably that women are the biggest consumers of art (mainly through television and social media) so they get catered to the most. As noted earlier, men have less time for themselves than women do so they have fewer opportunities to participate in culture and the arts, especially as consumers.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. We should work on better media representations of men
2. We should put an end to sexism directed towards men in popular media and on social media
3. We should work on work-life issues affecting men so that they can better participate in the consumption and utilization of culture and the arts

###Article 28: Right to a free and fair world

To make sure your rights are respected, there must be an order that can protect them. This order should be global.

• There are very few efforts to protect men's human rights in society
• This is especially true when men's issues are gendered and not shared closely with women
• Men's human rights are not taken seriously by many people and many organizations
• Many people wrongly believe that men's human rights are already protected

Of note here is that this comes from a human rights proposals created by the U.N. but the U.N. does not have a specific branch to address the concerns of men in this world.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. We need to affirm that men's human rights concerns are valid and do not come second to women's rights
2. We need to establish governing bodies that are tasked with protecting men and addressing men's issues in society

###Article 29: Duty to your community

You have duties toward the community within which your personality can fully develop. The law should guarantee human rights. It should allow everyone to respect others and to be respected.

• Men are commonly seen as protectors and providers who help others, but should not receive help in return
• Many men do not believe that their roles in society are properly respected and compensated
• According to time use studies, men spend more time and labor contributing towards society than women do
• Modern culture and gender discussions encourage women to take from society, but to not contributing back in kind. Instead of being seen as selfish, it is instead seen as an empowering and worthwhile goal to strive for.

This one is interesting because it affirms a duty for individuals to work towards a better society. This is of course what the traditional male role is, and this is sometimes compensated by female roles as well. We have gotten rid of many of these obligations for women but have kept our obligations for men. So in some ways this article could be seen as affirming that women need to step up and either take on traditional masculine roles in society or take on complimentary feminine roles.

I do not believe that gender roles are a good thing, but I do think this point needs developed to be fair to this article.

Of course we could also say that men need to step up in traditional female roles as well, but this is in fact what we already see happening in society, and is something that we are actively improving. What we haven't seen are complementary changes to hold women equally responsible for the maintenance and progress of society. I do not think it is fair to encourage men to take on a larger role in society while women are only expected to do their part if they want to.

It is also the case that men currently spend more total time and labor contributing towards society than women do, and this is still true when you include childcare and housework. A possible implication of this article is that women need to do more so that men can have more time, energy, and resources to engage in rest, leisure, preventative medical care, and the consumption of culture and the arts.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. We need to make sure that society is properly supported by everyone
2. We need to make sure that everyone is doing their part so that human rights can be universal to everyone and not restricted to specific groups of people or genders
3. We need to make sure that we are not sacrificing or ignoring men's human rights because it is convenient to do so

###Article 30: Rights are inalienable

No one, institution nor individual, should act in any way to destroy the rights enshrined in the UDHR.

• We have numerous examples of this happening already, and I'm sure the list could be expanded upon

I'm not going to emphasize this point very hard because I think it's important to look for solutions instead of complaining. I was however surprised by just how many of these articles were relevant to men, and how often they are overlooked when they apply to men. Men are human beings with thoughts and feelings. Men can suffer, and love, and therefore deserve all of the same compassion and care that we give to women in society. Human rights are supposed to be inalienable and do not stop mattering just because they apply to men.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. We need to remind individuals and institutions that human rights do in fact apply to men because men are human
2. Men's rights are human rights

article originally by u/Oncefa2 on Reddit

##Background

These 30 articles were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 and represent some of the most widely agreed upon human rights standards in the world.

Some history and information can be found here:

https://www.ohchr.org/en/what-are-human-rights

And an overview of the 30 articles can be found here:

https://standup4humanrights.org/en/declaration.html

I am going to use this site to go through all 30 articles, point out their relevance to men's human rights, existing shortfalls in society, and then offer condensed policy recommendations. I am not an expert on any of this and it is definitely not perfect but I think it can give us some ideas to look into. I am also not trying to imply that women do not face issues in any of these areas. The nature of this exercise is to look at issues affecting men because those issues are often ignored by society.

##The 30 articles and their application to men's human rights

###Article 1: Free and equal

All human beings are born free and equal and should be treated the same way.

• Men and women are commonly not treated the same by society, institutions, or under the law

This is a very broad article and covers many of the later categories where I will get more specific. One example that stands out is the Hayden rider modification to the US Equal Rights Amendment which sought to preserve discrimination and unfair treatment against men but not women. Presumably the Hayden rider modification would cause the bill to be in violation of this article because it would establish unequal treatment between men and women. This is true regardless if you think discrimination and unfair treatment against men exists, rendering that argument (which is usually made from a place of ignorance) invalid according to basic human rights standards.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Policies should be mindful of unequal treatment and double standards between men and women
2. Policies should not exclude one gender
3. Policies should not focus exclusively or disproportionally on one gender
4. Policies should not treat men differently from women

###Article 2: Freedom from discrimination

Everyone can claim their rights regardless of sex, race, language, religion, social standing, etc.

• Men are commonly discriminated against by sex, marital status, and parental status

• There are many articles in this document where active effort to protect women already exist but men are still denied equivalent rights because of their gender

This is another broad category that covers many of the later categories, so I will be expanding on those topics under those articles. A couple examples include education, freedom of movement, freedom from forced labor, and bodily autonomy.

Another thing that comes to mind are discriminatory definitions and implementations of laws concerning sexual assault and domestic violence. The UK's Sexual Offences Act of 2003 and the US's 1994 Violence Against Women Act are likely in violation of this article.

In the later case, the bill was eventually amended due to constitutional challenges on the grounds of gender equality, but in practice it is still often exclusionary. One factor that needs to be looked at is the name of the bill itself, since that can influence the implementation of the bill by implying that it is still only about women. Since this and other articles stress implementation as much as definition I think the name of the bill is in violation of this and several other articles.

Another issue that needs talked about more is discrimination against single men, which I think is protected by this article because your marital status represents a type of social standing.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Policies should protect the rights of everyone, including men, regardless of parental or marital status
2. Policies should not exclude men on the basis of their gender
3. Policies should be implemented fairly and equally
4. Checks should be built in to make sure that this is carried out in practice and not just in definition

###Article 3: Right to life

Everyone has the right to life and to live in freedom and safety.

• Men are the biggest victims of violence in society and have a much higher mortality rate

• The state often perpetuates this problem or is actively part of the problem

The death penalty is pushed onto male criminals more than female criminals, and in some places the death penalty can legally only be applied to men, and not women.

Forced military conscription seems like it violates this article as well.

It is also frequently the case that violence affecting women is taken more seriously than violence against men. Violence against men is often considered normal or may even be invisible to most people.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Policies should seek to protect the safety of all people, regardless of gender
2. The life and safety of men should not come second to women, especially when men are victimized at considerably higher rates than women, often because of their gender

###Article 4: Freedom from slavery

No one has the right to treat you as a slave nor should you enslave anyone.

• A majority of forced labor around the world, including forced child labor, exploits men and boys
• Men are often victims of coerced labor as well, for example inside of their families
• Husbands and fathers are forced by law to labor for the benefit of women and children against their will

This one intersects with known men's rights issues on several fronts. The prison industrial complex systematically exploits male labor, and many laws and policies in this area target the criminalization and arrest of men to perpetuate this system.

Men are also treated like indentured servants by child support and alimony policies where they are forced to labor for the benefit of women and children against their will. The use and exploitation of male labor to support women and children takes on many forms and people are often blind to this.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Policies should investigate and put an end to forced labor, including forced labor inside the prison industrial complex, and peonage in the form of child support, alimony, marriage laws, and divorce laws

###Article 5: Freedom from torture

No one has the right to torture you.

• The treatment of men in prison has been argued to be cruel and unusual
• Enhanced interrogation tactics are still used by militaries around the world, and men are disproportionally the victims of this

One note here is the difference between male prisons and female prisons. If a given treatment is considered too inhumane for female inmates, then it should also be considered inhumane for male inmates.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. A person's gender should not influence our willingness to engage in torture
2. A person's gender should not change what we consider to be torture. If it is something we wouldn't inflict upon a woman, then we should not inflict it upon a man.

###Article 6: Right to recognition before the law

You should be legally protected in the same way everywhere like anyone else.

• Men are commonly excluded from legal definitions of sexual assault
• Men are commonly excluded from protections and funding offered for victims of domestic violence
• Male bodily autonomy is recognized almost nowhere on the planet

There's probably a lot more but all of this should be covered by this article. We need to legally recognize male victims of sexual assault and we need to protect infant boys from nonconsensual genital modifications.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Adopt gender neutral legislation in name, content, and enforcement
2. Extend to men existing protections and rights that are already afford to women

###Article 7: Right to equality before the law

The law is the same for everyone and should be applied in the same manner to all.

• Men are profiled by the police and are more likely to be found guilty given the same evidence
• Men receive harsher punishment for the same crimes and mitigating factors
• When the victim of a crime is a man, the police do not investigate the crime as thoroughly, and the perpetrator is punished less severely
• Legislation may be formally written in a gender neutral manner but still end up being enforced unequally

There is again quite a bit you could put here. While legislation is sometimes gendered, what is more common is that legislation is gender neutral on paper but is still enforced unequally. This ranges from things like clubs being allowed to charge different cover amounts depending on your gender to the police not believing or caring about male victims of sexual and domestic abuse.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Legislation should be gender neutral and apply to everyone equally
2. Special care should be taken so that gender neutral legislation is enforced in a gender neutral manner

###Article 8: Access to justice

You have the right to obtain legal help and access the justice system when your rights are not respected.

• Men who are going through a divorce or child custody battle usually cannot finance their cases and therefore do not have equal access to justice
• Men who are victims of false allegations find it difficult to clear their names and pursue compensatory damages

This category is something that we fall short of in many ways for everybody. But men probably run into this a lot more than women, since the legal system is usually set up for women on issues that are commonly gendered. For example, emergency court ordered alimony and child support payments based on existing prejudices and gendered legislation makes it difficult to seek counsel and fight for a fair and equal outcome to the trial.

Men also find themselves the victims of legal aggression for which they do not have the means to adequately defend themselves. And in cases of libel, men are usually unable to get the state to intervene on their behalf.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Courts should not make temporary orders that interfere with a person's ability to obtain adequate legal counsel
2. The state should pay for legal counsel in civil and family cases like it does for criminal cases

###Article 9: Freedom from arbitrary detention

No one can arrest or detain you arbitrarily, or send you away from your country unjustly.

• Many militaries do not operate under this principle

Since the military is made up predominantly by men, internal military detention affects more men than women. And since women and children receive better protection from military aggression, victims of detainment related to military conflicts are also more likely to be men.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Militaries should not be granted exceptions to this article

###Article 10: Right to a fair trial

Trials should be public and tried in a fair manner by an impartial and independent tribunal.

• Men are more likely to be found guilty given the same evidence and mitigating factors against them
• In cases of hearsay, female testimony is more likely to be believed than male testimony

This indicates that juries are not impartial, likely because of systemic gender biases against men.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Judges and juries should be educated about unconscious gender biases against men and be reminded to remain impartial
2. Courts should formally adopt procedures to strike out testimony and evidence that relies on known gender biases

###Article 11: Presumption of innocence

You are considered innocent until it can be proved you are guilty according to law. If accused of a crime you have the right to a defence.

• Men are presumed guilty more often than women
• A presumption of innocence does not exist in the court of public opinion
• A presumption of innocence does not exist inside family law

In cases of crimes perceived to be gendered, men are usually treated as guilty before the trial, and this treatment often continues even if they are later found to be innocent.

Family court often takes a guilty until proven innocent approach, especially towards men.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. The media should be held to higher standards when reporting on crimes
2. A good model to follow might be what we do with minors, like leaving out the names of accused parties until after a trial
3. A family court judge should not consider a criminal allegation to have relevance in a trial until those allegations have been proven beyond a reason of doubt in a criminal court
4. Special care should be taken to identify legal and administrative aggression which is disproportionately utilized by women against men

###Article 12: Right to privacy

You have the right to protection if someone tried to harm your good name, enter your home without permission or interfere with your correspondence.

• Men are more likely than women to be the victims of privacy encroachment by significant others and digital stalkers
• Due to the weight of a woman's word against a man's, men are often the victims of attacks upon their honor and reputation by women

Basically everything that this article covers is commonly gendered against men, especially in the context of intimate relationships. Men are more likely to have correspondences spied on than the reverse and men are more likely to have their correspondences actively manipulated than the reverse. This comes in many forms and includes things like spying on text messages, cyber stalking, and having your social media monitored or even directly controlled by your significant other.

I'm kind of surprised to see that harming someone's reputation falls under this category, but it does make sense when you think of it terms of things you do in private becoming public.

I assume that this has less to do about false allegations and instead has more to do with an ex-lover spilling secrets that you either told them in confidence, or that they gained on their own during the course of your relationship.

One thing that stood out to me was just how commonly this principle is violated in informal day to day social interactions, and over social media. It is so common that I had no idea this was considered a formal human rights issue. I instead always thought that the right to privacy was something that was meant to protect you from the government, or maybe from a nosy neighbor.

I am also unaware of any formal legal avenue to address violations concerning attacks on your name. In cases of libel, what was said about you has to be false. But in this case the defaming information can actually be true, it just has to have been information that was private.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Victims of privacy encroachment should have accessable legal avenues to pursue compensation and hold perpetrators criminally liable for their actions
2. We should educate the public about what it means to encroach on someone's privacy, especially given recent advances in information technology, and the rise of social media

###Article 13: Freedom of movement

You have the right to leave or move within your own country and you should be able to return.

• One strategy the state uses to force men into non-consensual labor is restriction of movement
• Driver's licenses and passports are commonly revoked for debtors and peons

It's also common for people convicted of crimes to have their passports revoked in some countries, including after their sentence has been fulfilled, which to me seems like is in violation of this article as well.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Efforts should be made to facilitate the escape from peonage by crossing legal districts where peonage is being enforced on someone

###Article 14: Right to asylum

If you are persecuted at home, you have the right to seek protection in another country.

• Men are more likely to be the victims of political persecution than women

I don't see this is as being gendered except to the extent that men are more likely to seek political change and be targeted by existing power structures for speaking out against them.

It also seems to me that our definition of political persecution has been eroded over time, and that certain countries have gained near global access to be able to extradite nearly anyone they want for political purposes.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. We should look into how extradition treaties are written and enforced

###Article 15: Right to nationality

You have the right to belong to a country and have a nationality.

• There is a very well known immigration bias that favors women and children over men
• This is especially egregious given the fact that men are more likely to be persecuted in their home county and are more likely to be victims of violence because of their gender

A key part of this article is that you cannot be denied the right to change your nationality. And we commonly see that men have greater trouble with this than women do.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. A person's gender should not affect their ability to travel or gain nationality in another country

###Article 16: Right to marriage and to found a family

Men and women have the right to marry when they are legally able without limits due to race, nationality or religion. Families should be protected by the Government and the justice system.

• Men and boys are commonly not recognized as victims of forced marriages due to gender biases that see men as the more culpable party in a marriage
• Boys are commonly not recognized as victims of child marriages due to similar gender biases
• The family unit is increasingly coming under attack in Western nations by neoliberal policies

This is an article that looks like has been "solved" in the modern world until you start looking at some of the details in the definition for it.

I'm not one to raise flags over the "destruction of the traditional family" but I think it's interesting that this article specifically protects the family unit and even calls it the basis for society. It also calls on states to protect the institution of marriage. So I've included this bullet point for the sake of completeness and possible discussion.

Another note is that we've raised flags over forced marriages and child marriages for women and girls but not for men and boys. The perception is that men are forcing women into marriages but it is very often the case that both parties are forced into a marriage against their will, not just the female partner.

Traditional Western martial ages that are being enforced through cultural hegemony onto non-Western nations also impact our perception on this issue. For example a marriage between an 18 year old male and a 17 year old female will be contextualized as a child marriages for the female partner but not for the male partner.

Note also that in many of these countries it is common and legal for younger people to enter into marriages due to lower life expectancies, and this practice seems to be explicitly protected by the wording of this article because it mentions "legal" and "of age". This gets defined by the state in which you are married, and the state is then given an obligation to protect these marriages.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. We need better research into forced marriages and child marriages that both respect local customs and laws and that are inclusive of male victims as well

###Article 17: Right to own property

You have the right to own things. No one has the right to illegally take them from you.

• Men commonly lose their property through marriage and divorce

This is another article that on the surface looks like shouldn't be a problem, but the full definition does have obvious relevance to gendered issues that men face in society.

In particular there is a very active and state enforced transfer of property from men to women. This primarily happens during a divorce but you can find examples of it elsewhere as well.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Men should not be denied a right to their property in the course of a divorce proceeding
2. Special care should be taken to look into the various strategies that are used to transfer property from men to women, including coercion, manipulation, assisted suicide, proxy violence, and spousal homicide

###Article 18: Freedom of religion or belief

Everyone has the right to freely manifest their religion, to change it and to practice it alone or with others.

• A man's religious inclinations are seen as more dangerous than a woman's religious inclinations due to racial, religious, and gendered stereotypes in society
• Prejudices against religious men might interfere with their right to movement and their right to nationality

Just making a note that religious prejudices intersect with gendered prejudices against men.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. Religious beliefs should not be seen as problematic when they are practiced by a man

###Article 19: Freedom of Expression

Everyone has the right to think and say what they like and no one should forbid it.

• Men are expected to be quiet and listen to women, especially in domestic spheres, and on topics of gender
• This is often enforced institutionally, through the media, and through social media

While this is not a recent problem, we have seen this manifest more and more often in modern times through social media. Moral panics over the empowerment of women in society have facilitated buzzword like mansplaining to silence men and shut down conversations. This is especially true around the topic of gender which is just as important of an issue for men as it is for women.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. We should reiterate that gender issues affect men just as much as they do women
2. We should reiterate that men are allowed to have opinions about gender issues that affect them
3. We should reiterate that opinions and views held by men are equally as valid and as important as opinions and views held by women

###Article 20: Freedom of assembly

You have the right to organize and participate in peaceful meetings.

• Men are seen as bigger threats than women so peaceful assemblies involving men are more likely to be shut down
• Assemblies advocating for men's human rights are met with opposition and are not adequately protected by the state

This bias is so apparent that movements have organized women's only (and sometimes children's only) marches in order to gain sympathy from the public and prevent the police from using excessive force against peaceful demonstrators.

Such a strategy would not have proven useful if this gender stereotype was not an active issue in society.

We have also seen this in the past with conferences for men's issues and even for suicide awareness seminars where the police do a poor job containing crowds, which prevents men from speaking out against issues of sexism and discrimination that affects them.

####Proposed policy recommendations

1. The gender makeup of an assembly of people should not influence whether that assembly is seen as peaceful
2. The gender makeup of an assembly should not influence the amount of protection it receives from the state
3. Assemblies for men's human rights should receive the same amount of protection as any other assembly

I propose that we take a human rights based approach to men’s rights. That is, treat men as rights-holders. This means governments and other duty-bearers have an obligation to men as rights-holders.

Duty-bearers should apply the PANEL principles when developing their polices and practices. The principles are:

Participation
Accountability
Non-discrimination and equality
Empowerment
Legality

This video is based on work by the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, the Scottish Human Rights Commission, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

The video above is a collaboration between Aba and Preach who mostly do reaction videos to cultural issues and Shan Boody who delves into discussions about relationships and sex. The video above focuses on the weird double bind men are forced into by the wider culture and people in their lives with zero concern or forethought into how being more vulnerable affects the men themselves. I'd be interested to hear people's takeaways or disagreements with the points made in the video as there's interviews with both men and women on the topic of men expressing vulnerabilities.

Our society doesn’t respect the bodily autonomy of our boys and men, and it doesn’t emphasize getting their consent. Yet we're demanding that they respect the bodily autonomy of others.

Notes for a talk at ICMI with the following title: Feminism: Not “progressive”. Not “egalitarian”. Not “liberal”. Not “left-wing”.

1. Feminism is not “progressive”: It’s regressive; it is based on misandry, sexist discrimination, hate & bias; it suppresses science (esp. on domestic violence, on female violence and on criminology in general); it is conspiracist; it asserts the existence of a non-existent entity “Patriarchy”; it is ultra-conservative, in its treating women as helpless infants. Infantilism about women is conservative, not progressive.

2. Feminism is not “egalitarian”: It demands, and achieves, preferential treatment for a privileged group (women). By definition, this is anti-egalitarian.

3. Feminism is not “liberal”: To the contrary, it is socially conservative—women are infants, without agency; it is illiberal & authoritarian; it demands increasing state power; it uses the police and institutional power as a tool of social control; it is moralistic & Puritan. More or less by definition, these are central principle of state-enforced illiberalism, social illiberalism and social conservatism.

4. Feminism is not “left-wing”: It has no interest in economic fairness (esp. those at the bottom of society); it is openly anti-working-class. Marxism and socialism are, by definition, left-wing because their primary concern is with economic exploitation, wage slavery, alienation of the worker, co-erced theft of their labour, and so on. Feminism is, in no way, “left-wing”. Feminism is a form of Identity Politics. This, in general, is an anti-left-wing position. Furthermore, it is a form of Identity Politics closely aligned with the State, policing, punishment and incarceration (so-called carceral feminism). Again, these are not “left-wing”. They have been traditionally right-wing positions for centuries.

The ICMI20 talk is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZQf1JDa28Y&list=PLOXfnai0-o0I8BtOpmjbn_3FGYBHiV64S

This OECD research identifies gender inequality, but only when it goes against women. That’s because they literally don’t measure the inequalities that go against men.