{"id":1563,"date":"2011-11-30T14:08:45","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T22:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=1563"},"modified":"2011-12-05T11:30:06","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T19:30:06","slug":"open-space-need-for-mens-spaces-questionable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2011\/11\/30\/open-space-need-for-mens-spaces-questionable\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/i>: Need for men’s spaces questionable"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea of safe space for men comes up on campus, especially in conversations about the campus women\u2019s centres. Some students believe that if women have safe spaces on campus where they can hang out and drink tea for free, so should men. But should they, really?<\/p>\n

Of course men should be able to enjoy a cup of tea with other men and just hang out, and no one is stopping them from doing that. But the concept of men having safe space on campus shouldn\u2019t be taken lightly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Graphic by Jessica Tai.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since the 1970s women have made great strides revolutionizing dominant institutions, laws, and tolerance levels. Women\u2019s opportunities for jobs, education, and benefits, alongside abortion rights and, as of 1982, the implementation of equal rights for all in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, has been instrumental in the women\u2019s movement.<\/p>\n

However, it has created an antifeminist backlash, and this has come in the form of resistance. The media and government are now proclaiming that the pendulum has swung too far, and some men are claiming they are the disadvantaged and oppressed sex.<\/p>\n

A countermovement is being led by pro-men\u2019s groups trying to re-appropriate male power and privilege lost to second-wave feminism by playing the card of male victim.<\/p>\n

Although there are men who are psychologically and physically mistreated by their intimate partners, studies prove that female partners are abused more frequently and suffer far more serious injury. In 88 percent of all violent incidents males are identified as the suspects; half of all incidents involve a male perpetrator and a female victim, according to the FREDA Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children.<\/p>\n

The argument that men are equals in suffering abuse from women seems to be more of a mechanism to silence feminism. It takes away from the very problem of violence against women.<\/p>\n

The Stephen Harper government has repeatedly cut funding to women\u2019s shelters and organizations. The perception is that if violence is happening to both men and women, money doesn\u2019t need to go into any victim organizations.<\/p>\n

I have yet to see a men\u2019s group working from a grassroots level, providing support and care and services to male victims.<\/p>\n

Some fringe men\u2019s groups are putting their energies into finding ways to get back at females and rejecting feminist claims of women victims of violence.<\/p>\n

If men\u2019s safe spaces are really needed today, we all must establish why they are needed, and how they can be productive, rather than hostile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea of safe space for men comes up on campus, especially in conversations about the campus women\u2019s centres. Some students believe that if women have safe spaces on campus where they can hang out and drink tea for free, so should men. But should they, really? Of course men should be able to enjoy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views","category-november-30-2011"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1563"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1709,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563\/revisions\/1709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}